Letters to the editor: 'Fruit stops' for gun search won't work; issues with Ojai council
Checkpoint for guns preposterous
Re: Tom Elias’ Jan. 31 column, “ ‘Fruit stops’ could seek out illegal weaponry”:
History has shown that those who surrender freedom for safety inherit neither. Which is why it’s preposterous that Mr. Elias proposed CHP checkpoints to search cars for guns as they enter our state. While it’s true the gun used in the Monterey Park shooting is illegal to buy in California, this is irrelevant. As all semiautomatics legal or otherwise function identically and accept “expanded” magazines. And virtually every handgun sold in the past three decades happens to be semiautomatic, with a removable magazine.
Lest we forget the thousands of “California compliant” AR-15s, which are still selling like hotcakes, statewide. Such guns were never banned. Only the military “style” features, such as a knife-holder and spark-arrester have been outlawed. (This should insult one’s intelligence, but I digress.)
Moreover, high-capacity magazines remain legal to own in California, provided they were purchased when legal to do so. How fondly we remember “freedom week” in 2019, when Judge Benitez reversed the ban, and thousands of these magazines were purchased. How then is law enforcement to know the difference between smuggled magazines and those being brought back into the state by lawful owners returning from an out-of-state vacation?
Lloyd Forrester, Simi Valley
Ojai meetings hid improprieties
Re: your Jan. 31 story, “Dispute raises government ethics questions in Ojai”:
The story on Ojai’s improper closed session meetings missed the most important point: closed sessions were used to improperly hide improprieties from the public.
The Brown Act ensures the public’s right to know everything, with narrow exceptions. Here, the Ojai mayor tricked the council into hiring a lawyer for the city who was handpicked by the lawyer litigating against the city. That is not a matter to be hidden in closed session. The handpicked lawyer’s discussion of ways to defeat a development agreement previously approved by the city council was also not a matter to be suppressed.
The bullying profane behavior of a councilman to foreclose discussion of the mayor’s conflicts of interest was also not a matter to be hidden in closed session. These are the matters important to the public that deserve discussion, not an esoteric “experts disagree” discussion about the city attorney’s poor decision-making.
Robin Gerber, Ojai
Councilwoman violated oath
I attended the Jan. 24 Ojai City Council meeting and watched Leslie Rule create a ridiculous spectacle and violate her oath to represent our city’s best interest while serving on the City Council.
She repeatedly divulged privileged information that could possibly weaken the city’s defense against litigation threatened by the developers/owners of the Cottages Among the Flowers and Mallory Way cabins. She appears to be more focused on her own agenda rather than the agenda that was set up for that evening — one that also focused on rent stabilization that would actually have an impact on affordable/low-income housing in Ojai.
As Councilwoman Rule is my district representative, I urge her to set aside her grievances and her political agenda and start focusing on issues that people of Ojai actually care about.
Debby Russell-Swetek, Ojai
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Letters: 'Fruit stops' for gun search won't work; Ojai council issues
