LGBT Group Rallies At LA City Hall For Tighter Gun Control Laws

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Southland LGBT rights advocates voiced their support Friday for a gun control package proposed by Sacramento lawmakers following the terror attack in Orlando.

In a rally held at Los Angeles City Hall, Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California, promised the group will lobby members of Congress and the state Legislature in the coming months and put the "full weight" of the organization's "legislative electoral and education programs behind the lifesaving gun safety and violence prevention laws."

Pledging to push for national gun legislation, Zbur called the Orlando shooting "an act of hate directed toward the LGBT community" and pointed to statistics he says show people who identify as LGBT are "disproportionately harmed by gun violence."

"We will work to mobilize our 800,000 members and organization's leaders, and leaders of the LGBT community and our allies, to make gun safety a key LGBT community priority," Zbur said. "We must act now to make sure another Orlando cannot occur ever again, anywhere."

Equality California was joined by a bevy of state and city leaders, including Mayor Eric Garcetti, Police Chief Charlie Beck and state Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de Leon, who is leading an effort to pass stronger gun control measures for California.

"I think that there is a lot of energy in the state capitol to move forward a package of gun safety bills and also to send a message to the members of Congress that this can be done," said de Leon, who has authored one of the bills. "It takes leadership, it takes courage, unlike what's happening in Washington, D.C."

In Palmdale, Assembyman Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale) offered an opposing point of view.

"What we have here is well-intended rules that have been designed to control behavior when in fact I think that our big problem is these people who are imposing this threat to all of us," he said. "They don't abide by rules."

State legislatures, who have also authored a number of bills making their way through the Legislature, were also in attendance.

The bills, if passed, would require background checks for the purchase of ammunition, making it more difficult to quickly change ammunition magazines, ban large capacity magazines, and increase criminal penalties for buying or selling stolen guns to name a few.

Gunman Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded another 53 in the shooting last weekend at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

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