Los Angeles banned the possession of gun magazines that hold more than 10 rounds in a unanimous vote Tuesday.
The ban goes beyond California state law, which bans the manufacture or sale of those magazines. Instead, within the city of Los Angeles, it will now be a misdemeanor to possess a magazine capable of holding more than 10 rounds. Once the ordinance goes into effect, gun owners who currently have a magazine capable of holding more than 10 rounds will have 60 days to get rid of them before they are in violation of the law.
"People who want to defend their families don't need a 100-round drum magazine and an automatic weapon to do it," Councilman Paul Krekorian (D.) told the Los Angeles Times. "Imagine what a gunman on this sidewalk could do with that kind of firepower with a crowd like this."
National Rifle Association (NRA) attorney Anna Barvir decried the ban in a statement to the paper and said the magazines in question "are in common use for self defense and they are overwhelmingly chosen for that purpose. Indeed, millions are in the hands of good American citizens."
"As such, they are fully protected by the Constitution."
The NRA has already threatened legal action over the ban but Krekorian and other gun-control supporters remain defiant.
"If the NRA wants to sue us over this, bring it on," he told the Times.