(CBS 5) SAN FRANCISCO San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom hailed new proposed city gun legislation, and he did it Wednesday from the neighborhood most plagued by gun violence. “Enough is enough,” said Newsom in the city’s Bayview district. “We need common sense gun control.”
The announcement came nearly one year after a judge struck down a law banning handgun possession in the city.
One part of the measure outlaws the possession or sale of guns on any city-owned property, expanding the current ban from buildings like City Hall and schools to include outdoor locations like city parks.
Mayor Newsom said he also hopes to extend the ban to public housing complexes, but federal laws may make that complicated.
The proposed legislation would also require people who commit crimes with guns to sign up with the police department, then probation officers could keep better tabs on them.
Another aspect would require all gun owners to store their guns disabled with a trigger lock or placed in a locked-box. Authorities said lock boxes would help to keep legal guns from being stolen and then later used illegally.
"It is fair to say that a majority of gun crime is committed with illegal guns," District Attorney Kamala Harris said. “It’s a reality that a lot of weapons and guns that we find in connection with a homicide are stolen."
The idea, she contends, is to remind legal gun owners how to behave.
"Just because you legally possess a gun in the sanctity of your locked home doesn't mean that we're not going to walk into that home and check to see if you're being responsible and safe in the way that you conduct your affairs," Harris said.
San Francisco's only gun shop is also a target of the proposed legislation, which would require it and any future gun shops in the city to send police officials a gun sales list every six months.
Even though criminals already don't follow the law, city leaders believe any gun crackdown makes the city safer.
“It’s just time and it’s the right thing to do,” said Harris, citing existing laws in Alameda and Los Angeles counties that are similar to the proposed ones for San Francisco.