LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a bill that gives City Attorney Mike Feuer the authority to evict people who illegally sell or possess guns or ammunition.
AB 2310 by Assembly members Sebastian Ridley-Thomas and Roger Dickinson re-instates a pilot program ended Dec. 31. The law will now stay on the books until 2019.
Landlords can evict people for unlawful gun sales, and the bill signed yesterday gives city attorneys in Los Angeles, Oakland and Sacramento the same authority.
“This law provides my office with an important tool that will help keep communities safe from illegal guns,” said Feuer, whose office sponsored the legislation. “We have effectively used this approach in the past and expect to
employ in our future work to prevent gun violence.”
The tool is useful when property owners or managers are afraid to act on their own, out of fear of retaliation, city officials said.
Records from 2011 show the city attorney made use of the program 19 times to “send notices of intent to evict to landlords and tenants.”