Iraheta, Alba
From: pasadenacivilrights <
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2022 11:02 PM
To: PublicComment-AutoResponse
Subject: August 15 agenda, Item 17
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CAUTION: This email was delivered from the Internet. Do not click links or open attachments unless you know the content is safe. Report phish using the Phish Alert Button, Learn more On June 20, 2022 City staff proposed an ordinance that was unconstitutional, preempted by state law and made zero public policy sense. In this effort staff was supported by false and misleading information presented by the police department designed to trick the Council into believing that unserialized firearms ("ghost guns") were somehow unregulated.
City staff and the police department failed to inform you that in July 2016 Governor Brown signed into law Assembly Bill 857 (AB 857) which imposed "ghost gun" serialization requirements. AB 857 already makes it illegal to turn any 'precursor part' into a firearm without proper registration and serialization from DOJ (and completion of a background check). As of July 8, 2018, anyone who makes their own guns in California must apply for a serial number from the Department of Justice before completing the weapon.
On June 30, 2022 the State of California passed yet another law attempting to regulate the self-manufacture of handguns. But even this new law made sure that legal owners of firearm components who are not on the prohibited purchasers list are not instantly penalized and have ample time to serialize their formally legally owned components.
Unlike the state legislature, Pasadena City Staff now radically proposes to immediately force owners of legally owned firearm components to dispose of property that was legally acquired under both Federal and California law or face jail time, with no ability to bring their formally legally owned property into compliance.
A local ordinance is preempted by state law when it duplicates or contradicts state law. This proposed ordinance, to the extent it differs from the state law, conflicts with it. To the extent it regulates the same firearms as state law, it duplicates it. This proposed ordinance is therefore preempted and illegal.
It should also be noted that on June 23, 2022 the US Supreme Court once again confirmed the individual Constitutional right to both possess and carry a handgun.
This project began as an ignorant and ill-informed policy proposal that was always preempted by state law. It has now degenerated into a radical and likely illegal action criminalizing not the criminals who illegally possess these weapons but innocent and law-abiding gun owners who will be given no chance to bring their now currently legally owned firearm components into compliance.
This proposed ordinance does absolutely nothing to reduce gun crime but instead makes some gun owners into criminals in a way that even the legislature and Governor recognized would be unjust and likely illegal.
This unjust and likely illegal ordinance should be set aside in favor of the preempting state law.
As a governing body it would be hubristic for you to imagine that you have the expertise or even the legal authority to place your own ill-informed and incompetently crafted regulations on the exercise of a Constitutional right that, due to the Supreme Court's recent ruling, will be subject to invalidation. Finally, it's obvious that this dishonest ordinance has an expiration date so that any legal challenge will be mooted before the challenge can make its way through the courts.
08/15/2022
1 Item 17
Is that where we are now in Pasadena? A city council dominated by lawyers who craft unnecessary and likely illegal and unconstitutional laws that either duplicate or conflict with state law and are filled with lawyer's dodges? Do you think this type of policy making increases people's faith in the credibility and honesty of city government?