L.A. council panel approves gun control measures

The measures were introduced by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and several council members, including Jack Weiss, a candidate for city attorney, in May as part of the mayor's antigang initiative. Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton threw his support behind the proposed ordinances at that time.

Under the eviction measure proposed by Weiss and council members Janice Hahn and Eric Garcetti, landlords could evict a tenant who illegally used guns or ammunition within 1,000 feet of a rental property.

The committee also approved measures requiring ammunition vendors to obtain permits from the Police Commission for sales and to conduct those sales face-to-face with buyers.

Under one of the proposed ordinances, the employees handling ammunition would also be subject to a background check.

Another measure creates a requirement for gun dealers to inspect their inventory twice a year -- reporting any lost or stolen weapons to the Police Department and providing an affidavit of the inspections.

The committee also approved an ordinance banning the sale of .50 caliber ammunition. Rhonda Foster, whose 7-year-old son Evan was killed in Inglewood's Darby Park in 1997 by a gunman wielding an assault-style weapon spoke in favor of the measure at the meeting.

No one spoke in opposition to the measures at Monday's committee meeting.

But Long Beach attorney C.D. Michel, the law partner of city attorney candidate Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich, wrote a letter to several of the committee members accusing Weiss of politicizing the issue to benefit his campaign for city attorney.

Michel, who wrote the letter on behalf of clients -- the National Rifle Assn. and the California Rifle and Pistol Assn. -- said the majority of the measures were "costly, naive and ineffective policy" -- arguing that a number of the proposals were likely to face legal challenge and that others were redundant because they address areas already covered by state law.

Weiss noted that lawyers for the city attorney believe the ordinances are legally defensible and that he and other proponents wanted to be "aggressive" in their efforts.

"I've prosecuted gun crimes as a federal prosecutor, and I'm proud that I've worked on gun legislation my entire time in the City Council. It's a sick industry, and this is the type of charge we expect from them," he said, dismissing Michel's criticism of his motivations.

The ordinances could be considered by the full council as early as this week.

Reston is a Times staff writer.

maeve.reston@latimes.com