On Wednesday night Palm Springs city council voted for a new gun control measure requiring firearms in the home to be disabled with a locking mechanism or otherwise locked in a container.
The new gun control also includes a requirement that residents report a stolen gun within 48 hours and that concealed carry permit holders place guns “in a locked container” if leaving them in their cars.
According to The Desert Sun, 23 Palm Springs residents spoke at the city council meeting, with 15 opposing the new gun controls and eight supporting them. The council then voted 3-2 to pass the measures.
Moms Demand Action’s Dori Smith was one of the eight people who spoke in favor of the gun control. She pointed to the accidental death of a toddler in Louisiana as justification for Palm Springs to adopt the measures on disabling firearms in the home. She said, “We’re simply asking for safety first and saving lives.” Smith did not mention that far more children 10 and under are accidentally killed each year by fire and water than are accidentally killed with a firearm.
In fact, 2010 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures showed that over seven times more children 10 and under were killed in fire-related deaths than accidental gun deaths. And the number of children 10 and under killed in accidental drownings was over 16 times higher than the number killed in accidental gun deaths. Besides being silent on these facts, Smith also failed to explain how requiring a law-abiding citizen to lock up his guns will save that citizen’s life if an intruder storms his residence.
Councilman J.R. Roberts voted to require law-abiding citizens to disable their guns as a way of preventing “youths” from grabbing a gun “in a moment of hopelessness.” Roberts did not explain why homes without “youths” in them should also be required to disable their guns.
Gun owner Andrew Hirsch was among the 15 who spoke against the gun control. He said “the prior city council was known for corruption” and suggested the current city council is soiling its own reputation by “using its powers to restrict the freedoms of law-abiding people.”
The passage of the gun control was preliminary. The city council will bring the measures up for a second and final vote during their next meeting.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
I had a letter published Sunday in the Desert Sun against this stupidity. Palm Springs is a retirement/weekend tourist town populated mainly with homosexuals. There certainly is no gang related shootings and rarely a gun incident as I pointed out in my letter. It is another grab by the effing liberals for greater control. And of course, who is going to enforce this? Talk about a law that no one will obey, this is it! If you pass a law that is overwhelmingly disobeyed, is it a legal law?
Anziani, I’ll bet someone(s) on the city council has taken campaign monies in exchange for promoting this Constitution violating ordinance.
Ask yourself, would politicians whore themselves for compaign money, and violate an inheirent individual right of self-defense specifically forbidden by the foundation laws?
Most campaigns are hideously expensive as a rule. But at the grass roots scale of Palm Springs, maybe it is simple graft?
“Talk about a law that no one will obey, this is it! If you pass a law that is overwhelmingly disobeyed, is it a legal law?”
It is rather a tool/ option for coersion, since police or a DA may choose to employ it in retaliation, or threaten to as a lever to blackmail compliance. This is not a “no harm-no foul” proposition.
Overlegislating the citizenry is a papable form of tyranny.
I have advocated elevating by statute, the legislatively proposing, or passing legislation having an obvious, or inheirently seditious nature, to the level of high crime and misdemeanor. This strips elected office holders of a presumed full faith and confidence of electorate representation because of a due-process election victiory. No impeachment process is then nessesary, and a Grand Jury or State Attorney General (whats the odds Kamala would though?) could try and render sentence.
Then this evil nonsense stops.
Suggested ordinance: All residents of Palm Springs should drain their swimming pools at any times they are not sitting immediately next to them or actually swimming. Children are 16 more likely to drown than be killed by a firearm.
“All residents of Palm Springs MUST drain their swimming pools….”
Nanny staters are not troubled by lacking the niceties. It is all for your own good, you know.
First thought? Gestapo! Nazi’s! SS! And the Holocaust.
Influencing your Second Amendment right to protect yourself, family, and possessions is a treasonous act against America!
Let’s not forget that when seconds count the Palm Springs Police are minutes away and the city council will take no responsibility for the loss of life, wealth, or freedoms.
Who the heck elected these miscreants anyway?
There is no end to the stupidity of bureaucrats and busybodies.. They all think they are somehow ‘all knowing of all things’. Guess what? It this is passed and becomes something for them to hang their hats on – soon they will be wanting to restrict your diet or control some other part of your life… Do good Morons are the bane of humanity…
Californias “pre-emption law”, unconstitutional as it is, simply denies increasing or decreasing the otherwise unconstitutional regulation of the individual keeping and bearing of firearms. So after these spurious legal gestures by Palm Springs are challenged and defeated in the courts, let the political bodies hit the floor……come election time, that is.
A conspiracy by elected officials to deprive the citizens of their rights, in this case the 2nd Amendment, is a crime. Moreover, organizations like CALGUNS and the NRA need to think outside the box and pursue individuals under the RICCI Civil Statutes! Imagine the notice in discovery to provide all emails and correspondence related to gun issues from the Defendants…..hmmm
Note to Government: Stay Out of My House!
Love those brilliant CA legislators, I don’t think there is a more stupid breed of people running a state. They should ban cars, swimming pools, pesticides, matches, bicycles, alcohol, and most tennis matches that are in the sun and get it over with. Rather than try to regulate everyone’s life why don’t these idiots go find a hobby.
If the community is split on this, why not initiate a recall election now, on the three council members who voted for this. I do support locking up firearms if children are living or visiting the house. This is common sense, in my opinion.
And just how do you expect to defend your family when a gang of home invaders hit your house? Are you going to ask them to wait a few minutes while you find your keys and unlock your gun? Do you think they will. I had guns in the house when my kids were 10 and 11 years old. They learned how to use them safely and carefully. Never had a problem and my son is now a cop.
It is also State Law.
Pure stupidity.
Just don’t go into Palm Springs and refuse to do business with anyone who has business there as well. Let’s see how long the council waits to change it back when the PS get pissed and wants it changed back. Why the hell didn’t they put it on a ballot if they thought it was so important to regulate us out of our rights.
THE PALM SPRINGS CITY COUNCIL CAN KISS OUR A–ES, WE ARE THEIR BOSS, THEY ARE NOT OURS….THE U.S. CITIZENS: THE PALM SPRINGS CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS MUST LEAVE OFFICE OR BE REMOVED BY FORCE…
They have no constitutional authority and no purview in private homes. The ‘law’ is window dressing.
But being the law, it is the threatening tool for city hall and the cops to inspire you to self-nudge yourself into line, or face the consequences if you don’t.
Court time has been made to be whole-sale destructive to personal lives, even if innocent.
Just like a trailing speeder targeted by the CHP for a speeding ticket, what the others were doing will not matter. That is because the ticket coming will be all about you, with just your name on it.
Just more evidence that California is lost for at least a generation, possibly permanently….
Don’t be fools folks, “laws” of this nature will be enforced selectively when someone out of political favor is targeted and a search warrant is issued for, in either case who knows what reason, a search is conducted and another charge(s)will be added to the arrest papers…it might be the only charge if the warrant search finds nothing related to the reasons under lying its issuance.
Sounds like the atmosphere conveyed by the author in Nothing is Real, Everything is Possible.
Hey Dori Smith is Palm Springs a part of Louisiana now . I don’t think so.there is no way in hell I would do this its my home and my children, if your stupid enough not to teach you child right from wrong,and what is gun safety that’s your stupidity not mine.so that means in the process of my home being broken in I would have to take more time and different measures to make you happy. Then in the meantime the person that just now broke into my house might have a weapon, may it be a knife or gun I would not be able to protect my children or my wife because the buglar will have the upper hand on me. Well are you or your so called city council going to be there in time to protect me or my family. Will the police be there in time to protect us. Hell no. And what about the burglar are you and the city council going to make sur that the burglar is going to have his knife or pistol in a locked box or something before he breaks into my home. Again hell no ! . Oh and while we are on this subject that would also mean that every officer that is off duty will have to abide by the same rule. I don’t think so. I live in Iowa and if they passed the same stupid law here there would be no way in hell I would do it. And if I lived there I sure would not do it. Oh hold on that’s like no guns in school zones, has th city council stoped that from happening, because the bad guy is not going to listen to your stupid ass law. So in that case I think if my home gets broken into , if I get robbed or something happens to my family. You and your city council should be financially responsible for the money that was stolen, then if anyone was hurt you and the city council should pay for the ambulance bill the doctors bill the hospital bill any loss of wages rent whatever you should be responsible for it
If anyone had any balls, they would address the council and tell them that: “As a natural born American citizen, I am not required to follow unjust and unconstitutional laws however, I am obligated to defend, protect and preserve the Constitution against those who violate it. Therefore, any member of this council that authored, co-authored and/or voted in favor of your unlawful firearms law that breeches the U.S. Constitution is under arrest for unlawful and malicious legislation, violating the guaranteed rights of the people and beech of oath. Cuff their tyrannical hides and haul them to the closest Federal Jail!!
It sounds great TK. But just like with Barry Obama, the security protecting elected office holders will not let you simply trapse off with their duly-elected charges in tow. And they just might have special police powers, which tend to trump your general police powers in court. Things look to become intense then.
How! the Hell are they going to enforce it. That’s like telling criminals they can’t have guns.?
This is how Nick Gerts take over towns. K. Ike and Verman end up on the city council, then vote in crap like this. Large numbers of productive white people move away and sacrifice their houses, then Nick Gerts knows he has free run of the place, and the whole place goes down in flames.
What a dumb bitch, you think the bad guy is going to wait for you to unlock and load your gun, before he rapes you and kills your family. How the fuck does your thought process work. It’s for emergencys, when emergencys happen they happen instantlly there is no time to spend 5 minutes loading a locked gun, it negates the entire purpose of having one. Dumb Fuck
Another unenforceable anti-2nd Amendment ordinance by idiots.
(Knock knock)
(Homeowner answers door)
Officer – ” Hello ma’am. We show you are a registered gun owner. Is your gun disable as per ordinance 123retarded.3 section 4 of our municipal code?”
Gun owner- “I don’t answer questions.”
Door closes.
Then end.
Will this drive a new “Sonny Bono” into politics?
Liberal idiots
“This is why CA is on the way to being a socialist one party rule as they pass law after law against anyone who does not side with their Unicorn-Fart ideology.”
Close. The root cause is the full-time spending legislature which needs to be restored to a perfectly adequate for Californias needs part-time legislature. You know, one that is constituted of folks that actually work when not in session.
Look for a call for this measure to return soon. It is our only effective hope of dismantling the cadillac bureaucracy, and saving California from total progressivist destruction.