Responding to an increase in gun violence, the Los Angeles City Council enacted an ordinance prohibiting the weapon of choice of criminals unmarked and untraceable ghost guns and the parts used to assemble them.
Councilmember Krekorian and Councilmember Paul Koretz co-authored the motion for the ordinance one of the strongest in the nation.
Sold by mail order and over the Internet, component parts of firearms without identifying serial numbers are assembled into functional weapons by violent felons and others who want to avoid background checks and avoid police tracing of guns used in crimes.
LAPD Chief Michel Moore has confirmed that 24 murders were committed in Los Angeles over the last 11 months using these untraceable weapons, along with eight attempted murders, 20 robberies, and 60 assaults with a deadly weapon. In the previous year, fully one third of the guns recovered from crime suspects were ghost guns.
LAPD Chief Moore, Councilmember Koretz and Councilmember Krekorian, with representatives of the Brady campaign and Women Against Gun Violence, at press conference announcing passage of Ghost Gun ban.