By Emilie St. John
Contributing Writer
INGLEWOOD — Police Chief Mark Fronterotta is named in a newly filed federal lawsuit alongside the city of Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell.
Thomas Lopez, a member of the California National Guard, the Firearms Policy Coalition, and the California Gun Rights Foundation, filed the suit accusing both cities of restricting law-abiding citizens from buying multiple handguns within a 30-day period.
“No exemption or pathway exists for the law-abiding citizen who wishes to purchase two handguns in the same month for self-defense or any other lawful purpose,” Lopez charges in his suit.
Lopez v. Los Angeles was filed June 3 in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, because both cities continue to enforce handgun laws that the Ninth Circuit already ruled were unconstitutional.
“The city of Los Angeles and the city of Inglewood each enforce a local ordinance that prohibits any person from purchasing more than one handgun within a 30-day period,” the suit states. “These ‘1-in-30 bans’ categorically bar ordinary, law-abiding citizens from acquiring more than one handgun per month, regardless of the citizen’s background, qualifications or purpose, and back that prohibition with criminal penalties. No exemption or pathway exists for the law-abiding citizen who wishes to purchase two handguns in the same month for self-defense or any other lawful purpose.”
According to the suit, a decision in a 2022 case ruled that state law preventing buying more than one handgun in a 30-day period was unconstitutional.
“A state law that threatens its citizens for questioning the legitimacy of its firearm regulations may be familiar to autocratic and tyrannical governments, but not American government,” the decision said. “American law counsels vigilance and suspiciousness of laws that thwart judicial scrutiny.”
“Neither city’s ordinances carve out exceptions for self-defense purchases, replacement firearms when one is lost or damaged, or any other lawful purpose,” Lopez’ suit states.
Inglewood Mayor James Butts is not known for backing down from lawsuits.
He is currently entangled in multiple legal proceedings against two of the most transformative Inglewood business owners to enter the city in the last three decades — billionaires Steve Ballmer and Stan Kroenke.
They are disputing the legality of a 2015 development agreement with Hollywood Park Land Co. and a long-term digital billboard lease with one of the city’s advertising partners.
In 1995, while Butts served as chief of police in Santa Monica, he was named in a lawsuit that made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court over his officers violating the Miranda Rights of suspects they arrested.
Additionally, the city was found by a judge to have routinely blocked the public from requesting records of police misconduct and use of force in a lawsuit filed against them by the ACLU.
In 2018, the state Legislature passed Senate Bill 1421, legislation that made serious uses of force and officer misconduct available to the public through California Public Record Act requests. However, right before the new law could take effect, the city of Inglewood and the Inglewood Police Department destroyed decades of police use of force and misconduct records — forever shielding the records from public view.
Lopez is seeking to declare that Inglewood’s and Los Angeles’ ordinances violate the plaintiff’s Second Amendment rights and permanently enjoin enforcement of both ordinances.
Documents published to the court’s website on June 10 indicate that the plaintiffs served all defendants in the case.
Emilie St. John is a freelance journalist covering the areas of Carson, Compton, Inglewood and Willowbrook. Send tips to her at emiliesaintjohn@gmail.com.
