Local lawmaker introduces bill that would ban parts used to assemble "ghost guns"
A local lawmaker wants to crackdown on "ghost guns," untraceable, unregistered firearms that can be assembled at home and sold on the streets.
"Your children are not supposed to go before you," Arvis Jones, with the gun control advocacy group Moms Demand Action, said on Friday in Leimert Park.
Jones, who lost her son to gun violence, was speaking out in support of newly proposed state legislation that would ban ghost guns.
"I can't tell you what the pain is like, and all these mothers behind me, some wearing our shirts, can tell you how horrible it is to experience the loss of a child."
Assemblyman Mike Gibson, who represents South Los Angeles, introduced AB 1621 to regulate the gun kits. If the bill passes, the sale of individual parts used to make the ghost guns would be banned.
The firearms kits in question allow people to make the untraceable, unregistered guns at home.
"Just on Sunday, we had a massive shooting in the Watts Willowbrook area and it continues, and when they find out where these guns come from, these guns are homemade," the assemblyman said.
RELATED: Two killed, 5 wounded in Willowbrook shooting
A local teen, Mia Tretta, spoke Monday at the White House in support of new ghost gun rules. Tretta is a survivor of the 2019 Saugus High School shooting.
"I'm speaking on behalf of two classmates who can't be here with us," Tretta said. "We spent the morning like any other, laughing and talking until we heard a loud pop. It was a gunshot followed by six more.
Tretta was shot in the stomach. Her best friend, 14-year-old Dominic Blackwell and 15-year-old Gracie Ann Muehlberger were killed.
"I later learned that we had been shot by a 16-year-old student for reasons I will never know. He had brought his father's weapon to school, a firearm I would come to know as a ghost gun."
RELATED: Biden announces new rule on "ghost guns" aimed at preventing gun crimes
President Biden is proposing new rules that would require gunmakers to include serial numbers, be federally licensed, run background checks and keep purchase records as long as they are in business.
Gun advocates said the laws are vague and potentially damaging.
"All this stuff does, the federal rule and 1621...really do is raise the cost and complexity of gun ownership," Matthew Larosiere said.
Larosiere, is policy counsel for the Firearms Policy Coalition, said he doesn't believe the laws will hold up in court.
"They're just adding vagueness and criminalizing possibly, and again, it's quite vague, so it's not clear, but it seems that they're criminalizing more conduct and making it hard for Californians to exercise the most core function of their right to keep and bear arms, and when you really think about it, making a gun for yourself is the purest exercise of the second amendment," he told CBSLA.
Other gun legislation proposed in California would allow gun violence victims to sue gun manufacturers. That bill came in the wake of the Sacramento mass shooting that took place earlier this month.
(SOT - Larosiere - They're just adding vagueness and criminalizing possibly - and it's quite vague - so it's clear - but it seems like they're just criminalizing more conduct um, and making it harder for Californians to exercise the most core function to keep and bear arms - and when you really think about it making a gun for yourself is the purest exercise of the 2nd amendment)
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Other gun legislation proposed in CA would allow gun violence victims to sue gun manufacturers... that came in wake of Sacto shooting.,.
