Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn is taking her final bow as Board Chair with a crusade to tighten the reins on gun violence, a nearly year-long saga of legislative tweaks and community initiatives aimed at curbing the relentless scourge of bullets and bloodshed. "We need Congress to step up and take action on gun violence, but we can't sit around and wait for that," Hahn declared, according to a recent bulletin from her office.
The Board of Supervisors unanimously gave the green light to new zoning rules for gun merchants in unincorporated territories under the county's watch. The ordinance will force dealers to cozy up to the Department of Regional Planning for a conditional use permit, a process previously unbeknownst to the trigger traders. The new legislation also pushes firearms peddlers to keep their shops at least a thousand feet away from where young minds flock—namely, schools, parks, libraries, and daycares.
Last February, under Hahn's leadership, the Board outlawed the sale of.50 caliber firearms and their ammunition—the kind that leaves devastation in its wake and can punch through body armor like butter. The same month also saw the passing of an ordinance that effectively stripped the right to pack heat on county property, including beaches, parks, and other county buildings, with law enforcement and active military personnel penciled in as exceptions, as announced by Hahn's office.
Last month's regulation brought down the hammer on gun and ammunition dealers with a slew of safety measures. The newly minted edicts include mandatory business licenses for ammunition dealers, a no-minor zone unless escorted by an adult, and a checklist of other bureaucratic hoops — including but not limited to the sales report rituals, fingerprint logs, weekly inventory checks, the watchful eyes of security cameras, and signage alerting to the perils that firearms present. They've even gone to lengths to publicly shame those whose licenses get suspended or revoked by parading their names, courtesy of the Treasurer and Tax Collector.
Hahn's dedication to expanding the reach of GVROs, designed to preemptively unfang individuals deemed dangerous, has taken shape through public awareness campaigns and resource hubs aimed to educate and equip the good people of Los Angeles County on how to wield this legal instrument against possible threats to life and limb.
Supervisor Hahn is partnering with local blue to host gun buyback events in her district — a gambit that's seen over 1,200 firearms, from assault rifles to ghost guns, removed from circulation. With the next event slated for December 16 at Pico Rivera City Hall, Hahn isn't just talking the talk but walking the walk toward a less gun-ridden horizon.
