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LOS ANGELES -- Some members of the Los Angeles City Council are prepared to vote for a measure that would require gun buyers to provide fingerprints before they could purchase a firearm.
Monday morning, a City Council panel approved the proposal, which now goes to the entire 15-member council for consideration.
Councilman Mike Feuer is the measure's author and says that it would be an effective tool for local prosecutors to use when building cases against people who try to illegally purchase guns.
"This provision paves the way for tough enforcement when prohibited persons attempt to buy guns, and it also will deter many from trying in the first place," Feuer said Monday.
Under his proposal, anybody trying to purchase a gun inside city limits would have to agree to be fingerprinted first.
The prints apparently would be kept on file and later utilized by prosecutors to help identify ex-cons trying to procure firearms.
According to Feuer's office, there have been 5,000 such instances statewide in the last year, but prosecutors have failed to bring solid cases against the suspects because of questions about their identities.
The councilman believes that fingerprinting "will help prosecutors win convictions of potentially dangerous criminals who illegally attempt to buy firearms."
Sam Paredes, Executive Director of Gun Owners of California, says that Feuer and those sympathetic to his proposal have a lot to learn about state law and citizens' rights.
"The council panel has just looked at state law and completely ignored it," Paredes told Channel 2000 Monday.
"In California, we have what's called a preemption law. Under its provisions, the whole area of regulation of firearms ownership is usurped by the state.
"This is not the purview of local communities. And that's so we don't have a checkerboard of laws on firearms from one locality to another. The state is the guiding light in these matters."
According to Paredes, the state attorney general has an obligation to step in and stop the city of Los Angeles from trying to enforce a measure like the one proposed by Feuer.
If Sacramento doesn't get involved, Paredes told Channel 2000 that his organization and other pro-self-defense groups will challenge fingerprinting.
"We'll go to court ourselves," he said.
As for what Paredes thinks of Feuer's proposal in general….
"It's hokum! In reality, it's a whole bunch of smoke. It's what I like to call 'slogan legislation.' It sounds good.
"They're pushing this piece of legislation [fingerprinting gun owners] whether it has any impact or not.
"There's no secret that L.A. wants fewer gun owners in city limits. And what better way to intimidate people than have them fingerprinted or photographed?"
Paredes told Channel 2000 that gun owners already undergo background checks and fill out pages of state and federal forms before they can purchase a firearm.
He added that "law-abiding" citizens shouldn't be fingerprinted like common criminals when they wish to avail themselves of their Second Amendment right.
Californians:
Wrap your weapons in cosmoline, put them in capped PVC pipe segments and bury them.
The government of California needs to be replaced, ASAP.
When speaking of politics in Califoria, 'California idiocy' is redundant.
L
"This provision paves the way for tough enforcement when prohibited persons attempt to buy guns, and it also will deter many from trying in the first place," Feuer said Monday.
So, we are to understand that the background check does not afford any opportunity for tough enforcement, and that prohibited persons would freely submit to the check but not to fingerprints?
More idiocy from CA indeed.
All I wanted to do was do some substitute teaching and I had to be fingerprinted, something which I figured I would never have to do. It will be interesting to see how many more reasons arise for people to be fingerprinted.
Come to think of it, lots of newborn babies are being and have been fingerprinted. It is done for the "security" of the parents. "Security" will be the rope with which we are finally bound.
Respectfully disagree. It's time to get them OUT of the cosmoline and PVC pipes.
As a California resident, want to say to all the Freepers here:
IT'S NOT MY FAULT!
Maybe the trucker from Sacramento should have started in LA ....
God help us if this tyranny reaches Texas ..... can you say Lone Star Republic ?
"It's time to get them OUT of the cosmoline and PVC pipes."
Are you manning point?
You know, the bill won't stop criminals from procuring firearms. But what it will do is drive legitimate gun buyers out of LA county to purchase firearms, and cause gun sellers and FFLs in LA county to go out of business.
I think that is the "secret" plan.
lots of newborn babies are being and have been fingerprinted.
?? Haven't heard of that before. Any details?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
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