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LA City Council Votes To Ban 'Ghost Guns'
A Los Angeles Police Department officer holds recovered guns at a "Gun Buy Back" event on December 5, 2020, aimed at reducing gun violence.
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Frederic J. BROWN
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AFP via Getty Images
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The new Los Angeles ordinance will make it a misdemeanor to buy, sell or possess "ghost guns" — firearms that can be assembled at home with parts that are cheap to buy and have no serial numbers, making them virtually impossible to trace.
Violators of the new ordinance will face a fine of up to $1,000 and/or up to six months jail time.
"It's absolutely ridiculous to think the manufacture, sale and marketing of these weapons is intended for anything other than skirting loopholes, and state and federal gun laws in order to get firearms into the hands of people who law enforcement and we as a society have deemed unfit to have those guns," said Councilmember Paul Koretz.
The LAPD has reported exponential growth in homemade ghost guns this year, calling them an epidemic.
This year alone, close to 1800 firearms without serial numbers have been recovered by the LAPD.
In a report before the LAPD Police Commission in October, LAPD Chief Moore revealed that the number of untraceable guns recovered by the department has increased 400% since 2017.
A large number of violent crimes committed in the past year have carried out with ghost guns including the shooting of an LAPD Detective near the Newton Division in October.
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“Year to date there have been 24 murders, eight attempted murders, 20 robberies, and 60 assaults with a deadly weapon that have been attributed to individuals with Ghost guns,"Chief Moore said at a news conference earlier today after the city council vote.
Ghost guns have been used in some mass shootings, including one at Santa Monica College in 2013 where a total of five people were shot and killed.
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