Councilmember Krekorian is committed to making the residents of Council District 2 safer through sound policies and supporting our city's police and fire departments. He has a long history of fighting for safer streets and communities in Los Angeles.
Krekorian has restored critical Los Angeles Fire Department services, by championing the hiring of hundreds of firefighters, and providing the department with funding to replace outdated safety equipment and to keep more ambulances on the street. He has prioritized decreasing emergency response times and proposed new ideas to make the fire department more responsive to residents. Krekorian proposed implementing an innovative Next Generation 9-1-1 system, which would make it possible for the hearing impaired and people in danger to send a text to request emergency services.
Krekorian works hand-in-hand with the Los Angeles Police Department on community education programs, by supporting a well-funded and -staffed department, and by fostering strong partnerships between law enforcement officers, elected leaders and neighborhoods. On his watch, violent crime has declined sharply in nearly all neighborhoods of Council District 2.
He has also launched campaigns in his district to clean up parks, housing, railroad tracks and alleyways, turning them from hubs of crime into safe public spaces. Krekorian has also taken on graffiti head on with his #NoTag campaign, cleaning up more than one million square feet of graffiti in just 12 months.
Krekorian is also known for his strong stand against gun violence and for the safety of children and families. His City Council measures have mandated safe storage for handguns in homes and electronic reporting of ammunition sales. He has also successfully banned the possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines.
In August 2021, acting on a motion introduced by Councilmembers Paul Krekorian and Paul Koretz, the City Council approved drafting an ordinance prohibiting the purchase, possession or sale of so-called “ghost guns” -- untraceable firearms assembled from parts manufactured without serial numbers.
The LAPD reports that a third of the guns recovered from crime suspects in 2020 were ghost guns. The shooter in the 2013 Santa Monica College killings, and the Saugus High School student who murdered two of his fellow students and wounded two Los Angeles Sheriff’s deputies committed their crimes using ghost guns assembled from mail order kits. In 2019, of all of the ghost guns recovered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms throughout the US, more than 25 percent were seized in California.
Because they are assembled from kits, ghost guns allow criminals to evade background checks that would otherwise bar them from acquiring or possessing firearms. Ghost gun kits also allow individuals to assemble firearms that normally would be prohibited from sale in California. And because the parts do not bear serial numbers, the assembled ghost guns are untraceable by law enforcement and thus highly valuable to violent felons.
The City is also suing Polymer 80, the Las Vegas-based manufacturer of most of the Ghost Gun parts that find their way to Los Angeles. If the City prevails, other jurisdictions may follow suit and the manufacturers of the criminals’ favorite weapons may be out of business.
Councilmember Krekorian carried a motion before the Council that enabled the lawsuit to go forward.