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Sorry if this is a repost but saw this on the way into work:
Law to limit ammunition before Oakland council
chjohnson@sfchronicle.com (Chip Johnson)
Any new public policy measure undertaken to reduce, regulate or limit access to the guns and ammunition that have contributed to the loss of human life across the nation's urban landscape is a step in the right direction.
Toward that end, the Oakland City Council tonight is expected to weigh the merits of an ordinance that would impose license and regulatory requirements on the sellers of ammunition in the city.
Under the new proposal, anyone who purchases ammunition would be required to provide a thumbprint.
If approved, the city's chief of police would have the power to approve all new firearms dealers and impose strict rules on ammunition storage and record-keeping, matching existing state laws on handgun ammunition.
Similar laws have already been passed in a number of California cities, including Richmond, Berkeley and San Francisco.
While Oakland city officials should expect to receive some heat from the Bay Area gun lobby, this is one local ordinance that should take no great political debate to resolve.
Of course elected officials have the duty to enact laws to promote the safety of citizens, and it has nothing to do with someone's right to bag a deer in Wisconsin or go duck hunting wherever it is that duck hunters go.
It also doesn't bar the constitutional right to bear arms in the protection of home, life and property. It's not about gun ranges or target practice, skeet shooting, dude ranch weekends or fast-draw competitions.
This is about the very real-life carnage that has taken place in Oakland and dozens of other U.S. cities since the early 1980s.
Oakland has recorded more than 600 homicides since 2005, the overwhelming majority of them carried out with firearms. The city has one of the highest per capita homicide rates in the nation.
Now if someone were looking for an urban setting with explosive violence to test out a new wave of strict gun laws, Oakland really would be the Model City.
A member of Calguns, an organization that educates citizens about gun rights and enters "strategic litigation" to protect gun owners, said he planned to attend the meeting but declined to be identified.
He argued that even as Oakland has but one licensed firearms dealer, a sworn Oakland police officer who does not sell to the general public, the city has not seen a drop in crime over the last 20 years.
That may be so, but in New York, the strictest gun laws in the nation and a police department push to remove weapons from the street have shown remarkable results.
It is that level of weapons regulation that Oakland and other crime-besieged cities like it should be moving toward.
If Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums was ever looking for a national issue on which to leave his mark, he has all the ammunition he needs for one in his own backyard.
There is no denying the strength of the gun lobby on national policy - there are dead bodies strewn across the urban landscape as testament to that success. But there is no reason for the council to hesitate from enacting this public safety measure.
Under existing U.S. gun laws, it's obviously no problem for anyone with the cash and desire to purchase just about any weapon they want to buy, but if more cities adopted laws to limit the ammunition, maybe it would make a difference in a half-dozen cases a year.
Law to limit ammunition before Oakland council
chjohnson@sfchronicle.com (Chip Johnson)
Any new public policy measure undertaken to reduce, regulate or limit access to the guns and ammunition that have contributed to the loss of human life across the nation's urban landscape is a step in the right direction.
Toward that end, the Oakland City Council tonight is expected to weigh the merits of an ordinance that would impose license and regulatory requirements on the sellers of ammunition in the city.
Under the new proposal, anyone who purchases ammunition would be required to provide a thumbprint.
If approved, the city's chief of police would have the power to approve all new firearms dealers and impose strict rules on ammunition storage and record-keeping, matching existing state laws on handgun ammunition.
Similar laws have already been passed in a number of California cities, including Richmond, Berkeley and San Francisco.
While Oakland city officials should expect to receive some heat from the Bay Area gun lobby, this is one local ordinance that should take no great political debate to resolve.
Of course elected officials have the duty to enact laws to promote the safety of citizens, and it has nothing to do with someone's right to bag a deer in Wisconsin or go duck hunting wherever it is that duck hunters go.
It also doesn't bar the constitutional right to bear arms in the protection of home, life and property. It's not about gun ranges or target practice, skeet shooting, dude ranch weekends or fast-draw competitions.
This is about the very real-life carnage that has taken place in Oakland and dozens of other U.S. cities since the early 1980s.
Oakland has recorded more than 600 homicides since 2005, the overwhelming majority of them carried out with firearms. The city has one of the highest per capita homicide rates in the nation.
Now if someone were looking for an urban setting with explosive violence to test out a new wave of strict gun laws, Oakland really would be the Model City.
A member of Calguns, an organization that educates citizens about gun rights and enters "strategic litigation" to protect gun owners, said he planned to attend the meeting but declined to be identified.
He argued that even as Oakland has but one licensed firearms dealer, a sworn Oakland police officer who does not sell to the general public, the city has not seen a drop in crime over the last 20 years.
That may be so, but in New York, the strictest gun laws in the nation and a police department push to remove weapons from the street have shown remarkable results.
It is that level of weapons regulation that Oakland and other crime-besieged cities like it should be moving toward.
If Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums was ever looking for a national issue on which to leave his mark, he has all the ammunition he needs for one in his own backyard.
There is no denying the strength of the gun lobby on national policy - there are dead bodies strewn across the urban landscape as testament to that success. But there is no reason for the council to hesitate from enacting this public safety measure.
Under existing U.S. gun laws, it's obviously no problem for anyone with the cash and desire to purchase just about any weapon they want to buy, but if more cities adopted laws to limit the ammunition, maybe it would make a difference in a half-dozen cases a year.
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