[Editor’s Note: In an attempt to present balanced coverage of the City Attorney race leading up to the March 5 primary, here are separate partisan reports from each camp, Mr. Trutanich first, followed by Mr. Feuer.]
(See two pdfs below)
Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich today pointed out that the latest LAPD crime statistics show gun-related crimes are continuing to decline in the city, as they have throughout Mr. Trutanich’s administration.
The latest LAPD numbers – through last Saturday – show the number of shooting victims in Los Angeles city are 7.8 percent less than they were in 2011 at the same time. For the same 11½ months, there were 13.4 percent fewer shooting victims this year than in 2010. (See attached report.)
“This is good news – relatively speaking,” said Mr. Trutanich, who is seeking re-election in the March 5 primary. “But we must do more – in fact, everything we can do – to protect our residents from gun violence in general and from the kind of tragedy that took the lives of the innocents in Newtown.
“My office regularly prosecutes persons for gun-related crimes.
“It is involved in joint operations with our law enforcement partners to attack gun-related crimes,” said Mr. Trutanich. “Just last week my office partnered with the LAPD and the feds to whack the Harpys gang and shut down several properties the gang was using for drug and gun trafficking. That takedown resulted in the seizure of 24 weapons that were in the wrong hands.”
Mr. Trutanich reaffirmed his strong support for meaningful measures at the federal level to curb gun violence.
In a letter to Vice President Joe Biden, who was named by President Obama to lead a panel looking at ways to curb gun violence, Mr. Trutanich promised full support for reauthorizing the federal ban on assault weapons and a separate ban on magazine clips that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. (See the attached letter.)
Mr. Trutanich also joined LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris in co-signing a letter to gun owners warning them that failure to notify authorities when they sell their weapons or when their firearms are lost or stolen is a misdemeanor.
Meantime, the Trutanich reelection campaign’s chief consultant called on one of two rivals, state Assemblyman Michael Feuer to stop trying to mislead Los Angeles voters with scare tactics about Mr. Trutanich’s record on gun violence.
“Mr. Feuer’s campaign just recently said City Attorney Trutanich has not done enough to ‘curb gun violence,’” Mr. Taylor said. “As the nation mourns what happened in Newtown, the Feuer campaign is cynically trying to exploit the situation with misleading fear-mongering. It’s disgusting and shameless. The facts are that under Trutanich’s leadership gun violence has steadily gone down. What’s Feuer talking about?”
“It should be no surprise that a career politician like Feuer, who has lived in the Sacramento bubble for so long, doesn’t have a firm grip on the reality of what’s happening in Los Angeles,” Taylor said. “Mr. Feuer, this is Los Angeles, not Sacramento. You can’t make up things down here and get away with it, like you could up in Sacramento.”
Mr. Schwada, director of communications for the Trutanich campaign, may be contacted at John.schwada@gmail.com
[img]1647|exact|Biden Letter.pdf||no_popup[/img]
[img]1648|exact|LAPD CRIME STATS – COMPARISON.pdf||no_popup[/img]
For Immediate Release
December 21, 2012
Dave Jacobson reports that Mike Feuer stresses the need to fix, not exacerbate, the gun problem:
Following this morning’s o press conference by the National Rifle Assn., former California lawmaker and current Los Angeles City Attorney candidate Mike Feuer called on Congress to adopt a far-reaching set of proposals to reduce gun violence in America.
Mr. Feuer also responded to the NRA's plan to put armed guards in every school.
His six-point proposal calls on Congress to:
• Re-enact the federal assault weapons ban proposed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein. As a State Assembly member, in August, Mr. Feuer authored a California legislative resolution calling on Congress to re-enact the ban. California bans the sale of assault weapons.
• Prohibit the sale of high-capacity magazines that contain more than ten rounds. As a Los Angeles City Council member, Mr. Feuer authored the law banning the sale of high-capacity magazines in Los Angeles. California now also bans the sale of these magazines.
• Require the federal government retain handgun sales records. Many states, including California, already retain these records, enabling law enforcement, among other things, to more effectively investigate gun crimes and help prevent prohibited purchasers, including the mentally ill, from possessing weapons. As a State Assembly member, Mr. Feuer wrote the law – widely-supported by law enforcement – requiring California also to retain records of long-gun purchases.
• Require the microstamping of semi-automatic handguns. Mr. Feuer authored California's first-in-the-nation microstamping requirement, which mandates that semi-automatic handguns be equipped to imprint onto each fired bullet casing code revealing the make, model and serial number of the weapon. This enables law enforcement at a crime scene to determine from spent shell casings who bought the crime gun, providing an important lead in solving the crime.
• Limit gun purchases to one-per-month, per person. As a Los Angeles City Council member, Mr. Feuer authored the first municipal law in the nation to limit gun purchases to one-per-month to deter illegal weapons trafficking by “straw purchasers” who buy weapons in bulk, then re-sell them on the street to criminals. Following Los Angeles' enactment of one-gun-per-month legislation, the state of California adopted an identical rule.
• Establish a federal healthcare law that requires mental health parity by mandating that health plans and insurers cover the diagnosis and medically necessary treatment of mental illness. Mr. Feuer supported this requirement in California as a member of the Assembly.
“All Americans should be outraged that after years of blocking common-sense rules that could have prevented needless carnage, all the NRA can propose is to place more guns in schools,” Mr. Feuer said today.
“It's one thing to increase the presence of trained police officers on campus, a step we can all support. But just placing armed guards – without the training and experience of law enforcement personnel – in schools could make campuses more dangerous, not less.
“There is so much more we must do. Given the growing national consensus behind re-enactment of the federal assault weapons ban and other important steps, it's time for Congress to take the bold action necessary to make Americans safer. The plan I propose today would do just that. I am confident we can muster the will as a nation to stand up to the NRA and its allies and enact the major reforms we so desperately need.”
Just yesterday, Mr. Feuer issued a challenge to his two rivals in the race for City Attorney, calling on them to reject any form of support from any element of the pro-gun lobby, including the National Rifle Assn. and any other pro-gun lobby affiliate. Neither Carmen Trutanich nor Greg Smith has publicly committed to accept this challenge.
Over the course of his career, Mr. Feuer has written many of the toughest gun laws in the nation. As a member of the City Council, he wrote laws that banned high-capacity magazines, required trigger locks be sold with every weapon, banned the sale of easily-concealable weapons, mandated background checks for gun store employees and required the retention of ammunition purchase records. He also wrote the nation’s first municipal law to combat illegal weapons trafficking by restricting gun purchases to one per month.
This year in the state Legislature, Mr. Feuer authored a resolution calling on Congress to renew the ban on assault weapons. Also as a state legislator, Feuer authored the Crime Gun Identification Act, which was endorsed by 65 of California’s top law enforcement officials.
In his campaign for City Attorney, Feuer is leading the field in the race to secure sought-after public safety endorsements, including: the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Latin American Law Enforcement Association (La Ley), AFSCME Probation Officers Local 685, former LAPD Chief Bill Bratton, Public Safety Leader and Police Reformer John Mack, and former California Attorney General and former Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. John Van de Kamp.
The candidate has received numerous awards for his innovative and far-reaching laws that have helped to curb gun violence, including:
• Gun Violence Prevention Legislator of the Year, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
• Advocate Award, Brady Center.
• Courageous Leadership Award, Women Against Gun Violence.
• Outstanding Leadership Award, Legal Community Against Violence.
• Angel of Peace Award, Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater Los Angeles.
For information about the Feuer-for-City Attorney campaign, see http://votemikefeuer.com/
