(See two pdfs below)
Because of last Friday’s massacre in Newtown, the City of Los Angeles – striking while the national mood is on fire – is moving its annual Gun Buyback for next year up to next Wednesday at two sites, and City Councilman Jim Clarke is here to tout the event.
“Maybe there are gun owners in Culver City who would like to turn in their weapons and make our city a little safer, too,” said Mr. Clarke, speaking as a Culver City legislator and as the Director of Mayor Villaraigosa’s Office of Grants.
“The city gets incredible numbers of weapons and varieties of weapons that people turn in.
“In return, people get grocery gift cards worth hundreds of dollars.”
As a member of the Mayor’s staff, Mr. Clarke and his colleagues have been encouraged to privately purchase such gift cards and donate them for the erstwhile gun owners.
After listening to President Obama’s press conference this morning on potential gun control legislation, Mr. Clarke is encouraged that tighter government grips on gun ownership will be legislated, hopefully in the near term.
“The President has put Joe Biden in charge,” said the Councilman, “and he has asked that they come up with solid proposals that will be ready to go in January. He said this was not going to be another one of those cases where a commission is formed, takes six months, issues a report and gets it put aside.
“They are going to press the issue. I think even some of the NRA supporters now are starting to rethink their positions.
“They will focus on two areas – putting an assault weapons ban back in and the issue of high-capacity magazines. Mr. Clarke believes 30-round magazines will be the main target and the new limit would be 10, “which still can do a lot of damage.
Obama’s Perspective
“As the President was saying, ‘Just because we can’t eliminate all of these incidents, let’s do what we can.
“A lot of people have also said they ought to license ammunition,” Mr. Clarke said.
The fragile issue of gun ownership, as declared in the Second Amendment, has been emotionally aired all five days since the school shootings.
“Sen. Chuck Schumer said on one of the talk shows that Democrats and Progressives have to acknowledge that there is a Second Amendment,” Mr. Clarke said. “It is not an inferior amendment. But, like even the First Amendment, there are limitations.
“It is reasonable to say you could put some limitations on the amendment. Assault weapons would be one limit. High-capacity magazines are another. Background checks would be big, even before we get into the whole mental illness thing.”
[img]1642|exact|DEC 2012 – FAQ -GUNBUYBACK.pdf||no_popup[/img]
[img]1643|exact|DECEMBER 2012 – CITY GUN BUYBACK – ENGLISH & SPANISH FLIERS.pdf||no_popup[/img]
