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Legislation Seeks to Create Weapons-Free Zones at Public Transit Stations

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Photo: balmes via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr

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A state assembly bill with the goal of reducing crime around public transit stops and stations, and aboard vehicles and trains, has been introduced, Assembly Speaker John Pérez (D-Los Angeles) announced today alongside L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca. The bill namely makes it a crime to bring most weapons aboard public transit vehicles and around bus depots and in train stations.“We need to keep weapons out of our mass transit system so that passengers have a safe way to travel and employees have a safe place to work, just as we do at our airports and seaports,” Pérez said. “AB 2324 will be another tool Sheriff Baca and all the other professionals here today can use to help the rest of us go about our daily routines safely and securely.”

If approved and signed by the Governor, the bill would ban any firearms, some imitation firearms, BB, pellet and paint guns, hand grenades, metal and plastic replica hand grenades, some tear gas and stun guns and some types of knives.

The bill also would make a number of other actions illegal around stations, such as avoiding security screening and tampering with light rail train or bus equipment.

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