Your no longer to legally buy a firearm in Imperial Beach, California anymore for at least 45 days and could extend the ban for up to two years.

The City Council adopted an emergency moratorium on new retailers selling guns and ammo and have placed a temporary ban on sales until further notice.

The bill got approved on a 4-1 vote, with city council member Carol Seabury opposed and the moratorium is effective immediately.

The temporary gun ban comes after the city received a business license application from Outdoor Woman LLC., who temporarily moved her business to another location and wanted to re-open it at storefront on Palm Avenue near Florida Street. The owner Stephanie Gilreath also wanted to sell outdoors apparel and gear for hiking, fishing and camping in addition to having 10% of firearm sales.

Imperial Beach is a unique district that has no unique rules on commercial business mixed use zones unlike the other 105 jurisdictions in California that require gun dealers to obtain a local license along with abiding by federal, state and legal requirements. The emergency moratorium will allow the city employees to research and propose new regulations.

As for now, Imperial Beach does not allow storefronts to buy or sell guns and ammo in any commercial mixed use zones. Imperial Beach has granted business licenses in the past to home based businesses (FFL dealers primarily) and is now not allowing commercial retail permits. Several people spoke against the new restrictions at a pubic discussion calling it an "overreach" of the moratorium.

The district representative and mayor assured that the intentions of the moratorium is necessary for planning and making decisions that benefits the community of Imperial Beach. The moratorium can extend for up to 2 years which many of the citizens have complained that is way to long and time will only tell what happens in this community.

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Credit: LibertyDoll

By Paul Reed