§ 9.38.020. Findings and purpose.

The City Council finds as follows:

1.

This law is intended to reduce gun violence and make the City safer.

2.

The ability of large-capacity magazines to hold numerous rounds of ammunition significantly increases the lethal capacity of automatic and semiautomatic firearms equipped with these magazines.

3.

Large-capacity magazine bans reduce the capacity, and thus the potential lethality, of any firearm that can accept a large capacity magazine.

4.

Large-capacity magazines are not necessary for individuals to vindicate their right to self-defense. Only in an extraordinarily rare circumstance would a person using a firearm in self-defense ever be required to use a large-capacity magazine to defend himself or herself effectively. This is particularly true in an urban center like Oakland where law enforcement can and does respond quickly to threats and incidents. Conversely, the dangers of large-capacity magazines are heightened in dense urban areas like Oakland.

5.

It has been reported that from 2011 to 2012, roughly ten percent of all handguns seized by the Oakland Police Department had large-capacity magazines.

6.

It has also been reported that large-capacity magazines are difficult to trace to their point of origin because ammunition magazines for public sale are not stamped with serial numbers.

7.

In 2015 alone, the Oakland Police Department reported that one hundred one (101) criminal cases were charged where a large capacity magazine was recovered.

(Ord. No. 13352, § 1(B), 1-19-2016)