The Oakland city council unanimously passed series of gun laws Tuesday night, hours after President Barack Obama issued executive gun control measures from the White House.
The measures would ban all high capacity magazines and require gun owners to safely store their guns in lock boxes both at home and in their cars. Earlier Tuesday, critics had threatened legal action if the ordinances passed.
Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan, as well as council members Dan Kalb and Anne Campbell Washington, proposed the gun crackdowns in early December, shortly after 14 people were killed when a radicalized couple opened fire on a holiday party in San Bernardino County.
Oakland City Council President Lynette Gibson McElehany knows painfully well how serious gun violence has become. Her grandson, 17-year-old Torian Hughes, was shot and killed during a robbery just days before Christmas.
"Somebody somewhere is profiting from this pain," Gibson McElehany said. "We know this is beyond personal choice, this is a public health crisis that puts our boys at risk."
Responsible Citizens of California, a gun owners group, called the laws "an overreach" and promised a legal challenge.
"When it comes to banning standard capacity magazines, the City of Oakland will likely run afoul of state preemption laws, which dictate that local gun control laws cannot be stricter than state laws," Yih-Chau Chang, spokesperson for the group, said.
