Politics & Government
Proposal Would Let Residents Openly Carry Unloaded Guns
City councilman says current San Juan regulations are stricter than state law. His proposal would also allow people to visibly carry knives and daggers and fish local creeks.
A proposal to let people in San Juan Capistrano carry unconcealed, unloaded guns in city parks and city facilities will be introduced July 19 by City Councilman Derek Reeve.
Reeve announced the idea at Tuesday's council meeting, saying he had recently discovered San Juan's gun regulations are stricter than state law.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story did not specifiy city parks and city facilities in the first paragraph.
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“Our law is more restrictive than the law of the People’s Republic of California, if you can believe that,” Reeve said. “I’m not proposing anything out of whack with our very gun control[-oriented] state laws.”
At least for now.
Find out what's happening in San Juan Capistranowith free, real-time updates from Patch.
A Democratic state senator from La Cañada-Flintridge has authored . The bill will go before the entire Senate this summer.
Reeve raised the subject during the “oral communications” portion of the meeting for discussion of items not on the agenda. He opened by commending and supporting the owner of , who June 25 after one of the suspects reportedly aimed a gun at the store manager.
But Reeve said that incident did not prompt his proposal. Instead, he learned about the stringent municipal code just a few weeks ago, when the City Council was discussing .
Reeve said even though state law requires so-called “open-and-carry” guns to be unloaded, ammunition could be loaded and ready to use within seconds. He believes his changes would make the citizens of San Juan Capistrano safer.
The proposed changes to city law – a copy of which Reeve provided to Patch – would delete any references to carrying a weapon and instead make it illegal to discharge a weapon. It would also decriminalize the visible carrying of a “knife or dagger.”
He would also like to remove the ban on fishing in city creeks. Environmentalists have only recently joined alliances with hunters and fishers to support increasing wildlife populations, such as steelhead trout, which might swim in local creeks.
Word has it that a 3-foot trout was recently caught – illegally. Reeve admitted, however, the account might just be just another “fish story.”
