On October 27 the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to require all handguns to locked or disabled inside the owner’s home.
The measure was pushed by Councilman Paul Krekorian–the same council member who recently pushed through an ordinance requiring all ammunition magazines with greater-than-10-round capacity to be surrendered to the police or otherwise disposed.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Krekorian used preschoolers to frame his argument for locking up guns. He said, “It’s unacceptable to live in a country where it’s more dangerous to be a preschooler than to be a police officer — and we can do something about that today.”
Enforcement of the gun storage requirement would be handled on the backend, when police visit a given home for another reason–a domestic disturbance, suspicious activity, etc—and discover a gun unlocked in what they deem an unsafe location. The punishment would be a misdemeanor charge.
Gun rights groups have already made it known that they will be suing the city if the gun lock requirement is put in place. But Councilman Mitch Englander stood with Krekorian and said, “This is less about gun control and simply more about controlling your gun. It’s really that simple.”
There are two interesting things to note there. Number one is that fire and water pose a far greater risk than guns not simply to preschoolers, but to all children under the age of 10. Breitbart News previously reported CDC stats that show children under the age of 10 are killed in accidental burn-related deaths seven times more often than in accidental shootings and are killed in accidental drowning deaths 16 times more often than in accidental shootings. Yet Krekorian is focused on firearms. The second interesting thing to note is that the exercise of the Second Amendment within the home is accepted as constitutionally protected even among many ardent anti-gunners. And the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) spoke to this in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and again in McDonald v Chicago (2010).
Moreover, in the majority opinion handed down with the McDonald ruling, Justice Sam Alito not only referred to self-defense as the “central component” of the Second Amendment but also pointed to handguns as the favored means of self-defense.
How can a single mother exercise self-defense and defend the life of her children if Councilmen Krekorian and Englander force her to disable her handgun?
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.