Legal Wrangling Continues Over San Francisco's Gun Safety Laws
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera has made the latest move in the ongoing battle over two local gun safety ordinances.
On Thursday, Herrera filed a response brief to a federal appeal by the National Rifle Association which seeks to halt San Francisco's safe storage law.
The ordinance requires handgun owners to keep guns locked when stored at home, and a ban on the sale of ammunition deemed capable of "enhanced lethality" - designed to maximize injury to the person targeted.
In November 2012, a federal court first denied the NRA's motion for a preliminary injunction related to its challenge of the constitutionality of San Francisco's gun safety laws. Herrera argued at the time that San Francisco's gun safety laws protect the public without impinging on residents' right to bear arms under the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment.
The NRA subsequently appealed. Herrera's March 7 filing with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was a response to that filing.
Nationally and Locally, Efforts Continue to Enact Laws to Prevent Gun Violence
Legal wrangling aside, the issue of gun safety has been playing out in a very public way; most recently with a new public service message calling for action to prevent gun violence.
Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which represents more than 900 mayors from 45 states, is calling on Congress to limit assault weapons, require background checks for all gun sales, and to make gun trafficking a federal offense.
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