BELLEVUE, WA – Following a vote Tuesday by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to adopt tough new anti-gun laws, a sponsor of the ordinances admitted that they probably won’t quell violent crime, prompting the Second Amendment Foundation to call passage of these new ordinances an exercise in futility.
“Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, in a remarkable fit of candor, admitted to the news media that these new gun ordinances won’t stop violent crime,” said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb. “Yet the Board of Supervisors has voted to tighten its chokehold on the self-defense rights of law-abiding citizens and the one retail gun dealer in the city. This is ludicrous. You don’t stop criminals by punishing their victims.
“We sued the city more than 18 months ago over its ridiculous November 2005 gun ban initiative,” he recalled, “and by passing these ordinances, which are only slightly less restrictive than a ban, it appears the city now admits they will ultimately lose that lawsuit in court.”
The new ordinances will prohibit the possession or sale of firearms on city property, and require gun owners to lock their guns in containers or with trigger locks. Gun dealers will have to provide an inventory to the police chief every six months. Supervisor Aaron Peskin called the laws “silly feel-good legislation with no teeth.”
“Supervisor Peskin has this issue nailed solidly,” Gottlieb stated. “Supervisor Sophie Maxwell admitted that these anti-gun issues are ‘separate from’ violent crime, and that explains a lot. The majority on that Board are gun-hating extremists, and Maxwell’s statement acknowledges that they are impotent against dangerous thugs, so instead they concentrate on citizens who don’t commit crimes. First the criminals victimize these people, and then the city government further victimizes them. How stupid is that?
“This is the kind of anti-gun mentality against which SAF has to constantly battle, through our educational efforts and in the courts when necessary,” Gottlieb concluded. “It is a pity there aren’t more supervisors like Peskin, who understand the truth about these measures, and will publicly renounce them for the foolishness they represent.”