Kalifornia is at it again.
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3910271f16e7.htm#1
Los Angeles Daily News (Front Page)
Pushing Los Angeles to the vanguard of the gun control movement, the Police Commission unanimously backed a proposed city ordinance Tuesday to require background checks before people could buy gun ammunition.
City officials estimated the ordinance could cost Los Angeles gun shop owners and other licensed dealers about 75 percent of their ammunition sales, with buyers going to Burbank, Glendale and other nearby cities, where it would be easier to buy bullets.
"Will this stop anyone from getting ammunition? Absolutely not," said Bob Kahn, chief executive officer of B&B Sales of North Hollywood, one, of the largest gun and ammunition suppliers in Southern California.
"They're' grandstanding. How can this work when my competitors anywhere else can sell ammunition without any problems whatsoever? How can this work when it's legal to buy it through the mail ... legal to make your own?"
Councilman Michael Feuer, who first proposed the state's toughest ammunition permit ordinance, insisted public safety should take precedence over other considerations. He argued the background checks are necessary to give meaning to existing state statutes.
"We have state rules that preclude felons and (offenders with) violent misdemeanors from possessing guns and ammunition. But there is currently no system in place to prevent any criminal from walking into (a gun store) and buying bullets right now," said Feuer, a candidate for city attorney.
Feuer added that his office has collaborated with the Los Angeles Police Department, state Attorney General's Office and state Department of Justice to create a simple permit application system that is easy to enforce and implement.
If passed, the ordinance would require consumers to pay a $14 permit fee and submit to a 10-day background check for the right to purchase ammunition.
The City Council has yet to determine whether the $14 permit would be good for two years or would have to be renewed every year.
Police Commissioner Dean Hansell called the background checks "another important step to help make this city a little safer."
The state Department of Justice has agreed to complete the ammunition background checks for the city, using nearly the same criteria the state now uses for permits to buy guns. The only information that could not be accessed for ammunition background checks would be a buyer's mental health records.
If a customer wanted authorization to buy a gun and ammunition at the same time, he or she could use the same background check for both and would only have to pay one $14 fee.
To conduct the ammunition background checks, the state would need to upgrade the gun permit computer system at a cost of about $380,000. In addition, there would be a yearly cost of about $120,000 for the workers who perform the checks.
Feuer expressed hope that the state would agree to pick up the tab.
Based upon law enforcement estimates, about 40,000 consumers purchase ammunition e ach year at gun shops and other licensed dealers in Los Angeles. The number would plunge to about 10,000 if the ordinance were adopted, according to official preliminary estimates.
"Most persons would likely purchase their ammunition from gun dealers outside of the city limits or through mail order companies, neither of which would be affected by the ordinance," city policy analyst Bill Statti noted in a March report.
The city has no means to track how much money it took in last year on taxes from ammunition sales. Attempts by the city to create a special tax on ammunition were invalidated in, 1998 by Proposition 218, tax and permit officials said.
Feuer and Hansell expressed hope that tougher ammunition laws in Los Angeles would serve as a catalyst for other cities, the state and the nation. Both noted San Francisco recently began considering a similar proposal at the city and county levels.
"There is a lot of interest in this from other cities," Hansell said. "We anticipate that Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena and other cities would be very interested in what we are doing. Those cities have the identical goal of keeping the streets safe."
The City Council's Public Safety Committee is scheduled to discuss the ordinance May 15.
It's a foolish idea," said Merrill Gibson, president of the National Rifle Association Member Council of Westside Los Angeles.
"I suppose it's supposed to have some sort of crime-fighting use. Generally speaking, criminals do not have a need to replenish their guns. When they use a gun they seldom fire it, they use it as a threat."
Merrill said the only people who do use "vast quantities of ammunition" are law-abiding target shooters.
"This is an enormous waste of resources and does nothing to stop criminals from getting ammunition," he said. "It only makes it a little harder for law-abiding citizens to get ammunition."
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The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3910271f16e7.htm#1
Los Angeles Daily News (Front Page)
Pushing Los Angeles to the vanguard of the gun control movement, the Police Commission unanimously backed a proposed city ordinance Tuesday to require background checks before people could buy gun ammunition.
City officials estimated the ordinance could cost Los Angeles gun shop owners and other licensed dealers about 75 percent of their ammunition sales, with buyers going to Burbank, Glendale and other nearby cities, where it would be easier to buy bullets.
"Will this stop anyone from getting ammunition? Absolutely not," said Bob Kahn, chief executive officer of B&B Sales of North Hollywood, one, of the largest gun and ammunition suppliers in Southern California.
"They're' grandstanding. How can this work when my competitors anywhere else can sell ammunition without any problems whatsoever? How can this work when it's legal to buy it through the mail ... legal to make your own?"
Councilman Michael Feuer, who first proposed the state's toughest ammunition permit ordinance, insisted public safety should take precedence over other considerations. He argued the background checks are necessary to give meaning to existing state statutes.
"We have state rules that preclude felons and (offenders with) violent misdemeanors from possessing guns and ammunition. But there is currently no system in place to prevent any criminal from walking into (a gun store) and buying bullets right now," said Feuer, a candidate for city attorney.
Feuer added that his office has collaborated with the Los Angeles Police Department, state Attorney General's Office and state Department of Justice to create a simple permit application system that is easy to enforce and implement.
If passed, the ordinance would require consumers to pay a $14 permit fee and submit to a 10-day background check for the right to purchase ammunition.
The City Council has yet to determine whether the $14 permit would be good for two years or would have to be renewed every year.
Police Commissioner Dean Hansell called the background checks "another important step to help make this city a little safer."
The state Department of Justice has agreed to complete the ammunition background checks for the city, using nearly the same criteria the state now uses for permits to buy guns. The only information that could not be accessed for ammunition background checks would be a buyer's mental health records.
If a customer wanted authorization to buy a gun and ammunition at the same time, he or she could use the same background check for both and would only have to pay one $14 fee.
To conduct the ammunition background checks, the state would need to upgrade the gun permit computer system at a cost of about $380,000. In addition, there would be a yearly cost of about $120,000 for the workers who perform the checks.
Feuer expressed hope that the state would agree to pick up the tab.
Based upon law enforcement estimates, about 40,000 consumers purchase ammunition e ach year at gun shops and other licensed dealers in Los Angeles. The number would plunge to about 10,000 if the ordinance were adopted, according to official preliminary estimates.
"Most persons would likely purchase their ammunition from gun dealers outside of the city limits or through mail order companies, neither of which would be affected by the ordinance," city policy analyst Bill Statti noted in a March report.
The city has no means to track how much money it took in last year on taxes from ammunition sales. Attempts by the city to create a special tax on ammunition were invalidated in, 1998 by Proposition 218, tax and permit officials said.
Feuer and Hansell expressed hope that tougher ammunition laws in Los Angeles would serve as a catalyst for other cities, the state and the nation. Both noted San Francisco recently began considering a similar proposal at the city and county levels.
"There is a lot of interest in this from other cities," Hansell said. "We anticipate that Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena and other cities would be very interested in what we are doing. Those cities have the identical goal of keeping the streets safe."
The City Council's Public Safety Committee is scheduled to discuss the ordinance May 15.
It's a foolish idea," said Merrill Gibson, president of the National Rifle Association Member Council of Westside Los Angeles.
"I suppose it's supposed to have some sort of crime-fighting use. Generally speaking, criminals do not have a need to replenish their guns. When they use a gun they seldom fire it, they use it as a threat."
Merrill said the only people who do use "vast quantities of ammunition" are law-abiding target shooters.
"This is an enormous waste of resources and does nothing to stop criminals from getting ammunition," he said. "It only makes it a little harder for law-abiding citizens to get ammunition."
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The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.
