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Mountain View’s Environmental Planning Commission voted 6-1 on Wednesday to recommend an ordinance that bans firearm and ammunition sales in homes, a zoning change that’s part of a larger package of gun-control measures under consideration this year.
The motion passed 6-1, with Commissioner Jose Gutierrez dissenting.
Assistant City Attorney Diana Fazely described the ordinance as part of a larger framework of firearm regulation that will go before the City Council on Sept. 12. Other proposed rules would require firearm dealers in the city to obtain a license from the Mountain View Police Department, and would prohibits firearm dealers from operating within 250 feet of parks, schools and daycares, according to the staff report.
Gutierrez raised a concern about the proposed distance, stating that he would prefer firearm dealers to operate at least 500 feet away from parks, schools and daycare settings. “I had a lot of folks call me up and express their dismay of the 250 limit that was agreed to previously by City Council,” he said.
The scope of the commission’s recommendations at the Aug. 16 meeting was fairly narrow. Fazely said they were tasked with addressing only the land use portion of the ordinance and how it relates to home occupation.
Specifically, the commission looked at the amended language in city code that states the “sale, lease, delivery, transfer, commercial storage or commercial bailment of firearms or ammunition will be prohibited as a home occupation use.”
Commercial bailment is distinct from other gunsmithing activities, like the assembly, repair or maintenance of firearms.
“Commercial bailment specifically is intended to only capture someone storing or warehousing the firearms or ammunition. So, holding it for another person or another entity, or even for a person themselves, like storing firearms ammunition for their own business in their homes,” she said.
Currently, there are four firearm dealers operating in the city, Fazely said. The existing firearm dealers will be given one year to comply with the new requirements.
The cities of Palo Alto, San Jose, Morgan Hill and Campbell have similar prohibitions on home occupation use for firearm dealers, according to city staff.
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2nd amendment might disagree with this restriction. Amazing that most of City Council would support it.
While the Second Amendment does protect the right to bear arms, legal scholars and courts have recognized that reasonable regulations on firearms can still be implemented without infringing upon this right. The amendment doesn’t prevent the government from imposing restrictions or regulations on home firearm markets, as long as those regulations are within the boundaries of public safety and constitutional limits.
I don’t understand what problem this is supposed to solve.
@ivg
Exactly.
I can imagine that there may be people with 3D printers at home making and selling ghost guns. But that’s already illegal.