In a transfer rapidly denounced by gun rights advocates, Redwood Metropolis has quickly banned the sale of firearms inside metropolis limits — a call that got here after two retailers sought to open new gun outlets close to two colleges.
Redwood Metropolis at present doesn't have gun shops, and the most recent motion marks the primary time the town has stepped in to control the sale of firearms and ammunition.
In a 5-2 vote after a heated assembly that pitted neighbor towards neighbor, the Redwood Metropolis Council on Monday accredited the moratorium on gun shops after receiving two purposes for opening firearm shops on Roosevelt Avenue — down the road from Roosevelt Elementary at a well-liked pupil hangout spot — and on El Camino Actual close to Sequoia Excessive College.
The choice instantly drew the ire of Second Modification advocates.
Maria Rutenburg, who owns the constructing that one gun retailer hoped to lease for the brand new retailer, fervently opposed the moratorium, and insinuated on Monday that gun rights advocates like her would pursue authorized motion sooner or later, probably sparking a combat between the town and gun advocates.
“You guys approve liquor licenses left and proper with no drawback despite the fact that they’re situated inside 1,000 toes of a college, identical factor goes with hashish,” Rutenburg mentioned. “You don't have any drawback approving this however on the subject of weapons we're protected by the Second Modification. And what you’re making an attempt to do is you’re truly inviting lots of litigation about this as a result of that is going to be a nationwide case. This can be a massive deal and we’re not going to let it go.”
The moratorium accredited Monday will final 45 days and will be prolonged to last as long as two years. The transfer follows tendencies of different cities within the Bay Space.
Palo Alto made an analogous emergency determination in June to ban gun gross sales inside metropolis limits after receiving an inquiry for opening its first gun retailer within the Stanford Analysis Park.
Like in Palo Alto, Redwood Metropolis residents wrote dozens of letters and emails to the town council and spoke at size at metropolis corridor demanding leaders not permit the outlets to open.
These strikes by Bay Space cities to limit gun gross sales stands in sharp distinction to the general rise in demand for firearms within the area. And in 2020, the variety of firearm gross sales throughout the U.S. exceeded the earlier 12 months by about 65%, the report says.
Redwood Metropolis employees made clear of their report back to the council that whereas the Second Modification upholds a person’s rights to “bear arms,” federal and state legal guidelines regulate the sale and possession of firearms and “heightened sensitivity and neighborhood concern concerning firearms have prompted… native authorities to contemplate choices to mitigate gun violence.”
Sophie Mintier, whose youngsters attend Roosevelt Elementary, urged the council to behave swiftly to cease future gun gross sales within the metropolis, particularly so near the place her children go to high school.
“It’s frankly extraordinarily disturbing that there might probably be a firearm retailer throughout the road from my children’ college,” Mintier mentioned. “I don’t need a gun retailer throughout the road from the place my children go to high school or close to anybody’s college fairly frankly.”
Katie Gaets, who's a father or mother and pastor of Woodside Highway United Methodist Church, famous the hazard of getting a gun retailer close to colleges when gun violence in colleges is so prevalent and mass shootings so widespread.
“Simply in the present day a young person was convicted of killing 4 folks in a college capturing and two extra folks died in a college capturing in St. Louis,” Gaets mentioned through the Monday assembly. “One of many methods we will take a transparent and definitive stance of no towards such violence is by taking a transparent and particular step away from firearms sellers in our neighborhood.”
Nonetheless some like Gabriella Mejia say they wish to maintain themselves and their family members secure, and that weapons are protection choice, saying “I simply wish to defend my household.”