(SAN JOSE, Calif.) — The San Jose City Council voted unanimously to approve an ordinance that would ban so-called ghost guns in the city.

The ordinance prohibits the possession, manufacturing, sale, assembly, transfer, receiving and distribution of firearms, as well as related components, that are not imprinted with a federal or state-authorized serial number.

Privately manufactured firearms, also referred to as ghost guns, are untraceable firearms that are often assembled by unlicensed individuals, the ordinance explains. They’re typically sold through unregulated sellers, without background checks, waiting periods, sales records retention, age restrictions or other restrictions.

San Jose follows other California cities that have banned ghost guns, including San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles.

The ordinance is part of the mayor’s move to reduce gun harm and shift the financial burdens from taxpayers and victims to gun owners, the office of San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said in a statement.

“In cities like San José and LA, a quarter of the illegal guns seized by the police are ‘ghost guns’ lacking any serial number or other identifying mark, enabling criminal gangs to deploy them without accountability,” Liccardo said in the statement.

Residents in possession of unserialized ghost gun components will have 120 days to comply with the ordinance before the rule is enforced, the statement says.

In California alone, ghost guns accounted for 25 to 50% of firearms recovered at crime scenes over an 18-month period during 2020 and 2021, according to the County of Santa Clara Crime Lab.

The number of ghost guns seized by San Jose police during criminal investigations in the last five years has increased “dramatically” from nine in 2017 to 221 in 2021, the ordinance states.

The ordinance will go into effect after June 16.

San Jose passed a groundbreaking rule in January that required gun owners to purchase liability insurance and pay an annual “gun harm reduction” fee. San Jose was the first city in the U.S. to pass such a law. It goes into effect in August.

President Joe Biden announced a new ghost gun measure last month, in an effort to crack down on what law enforcement has been calling a growing problem. Biden also called on Congress to pass universal background checks.

“We applaud the recent steps the Biden Administration has taken to stem the rising tide of ghost guns by banning their distribution. An ocean of ghost guns remain in our cities, however, requiring local communities to act to ban the possession of these untraceable guns and their component parts,” Liccardo said in the statement.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(OXFORD, Mich.) — Oxford Community Schools rejected a second offer from the Michigan attorney general’s office to investigate a school shooting in November. The school board said it will launch a third party investigation after the civil cases against the district have been litigated.

The school board said it has been fully cooperating with the Oakland County prosecutor’s investigation and will continue to do so.

Ethan Crumbley, a former student at Oxford High School, is accused of shooting and killing four other students at the school on Nov. 30. He has pleaded not guilty and is set to stand trial in September.

His parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, are also facing four counts of involuntary manslaughter for allegedly failing to recognize warning signs about their son in the months before he fatally shot his classmates. Two judges have declined to reduce their bail.

The Crumbleys have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

A lawsuit alleges that the district failed to heed warning signs before the shooting, which the district has denied. The board said reports and analyses will be made public throughout the litigation process.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel criticized the board’s rejection of her office’s offer.

“I am deeply disappointed by the school board’s repeated rejection of my offers to perform an independent and thorough review of the systems and procedures in the days leading up to and on November 30, 2021,” Nessel said in a statement Wednesday.

She said her department would only be able to perform an exhaustive and thorough review with the cooperation of the school board and district.

“Absent that partnership, I am restricted to the publicly available information we have all read and reviewed,” Nessel said.

The school board said it will wait to launch the third-party investigation and said it will be engaging experts as part of the litigation process to thoroughly review the tragedy and the events leading up to it.

“The ongoing criminal cases have understandably delayed the release of information that could be essential to our extensive review. Oxford Community Schools is also responding to numerous lawsuits at the state and federal levels which will require attention and time from our legal team, our staff and the Board,” the school board said in a statement Tuesday.

The board added, “Once the litigation process is completed and all information has risen to the surface, a team of experts will conduct a third-party review.”

The board also said it is working on a three-year recovery plan which is currently under development by the superintendent and district administration. Upon completion, the plan will be reviewed by a third-party before being implemented at the start of the 2022-2023 school year.

Third-party group Secure Education Consultants have also completed an independent review into all district safety practices and procedures, the board said.

Nessel claimed the board’s rejection stands in the way of transparency.

“The rejection sends a message that the board is more focused on limiting liability than responding to the loud outcry from the Oxford community to deliver greater peace of mind to the students, parents and educators that lived through this traumatic event,” she said.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(RALEIGH, N.C.) — Friends and volunteers formed a search party Wednesday and fanned out in Raleigh, North Carolina, looking for clues and raising awareness about a popular nightclub bouncer, who they say went missing a week ago while driving home.

Robert Richardson, 41, was reported missing by friends, who say he disappeared after getting into a minor car accident on the evening of May 4.

“He’s out there somewhere and somebody knows something,” Kensley Perry, a friend of Richardson, told ABC station WTVD in Durham.

Perry works as head of security at The Village Entertainment Complex in Raleigh’s Glenwood South nightlife district, where Richardson is employed as a door bouncer.

The Raleigh Police Department confirmed that Richardson’s friends filed a missing person report, but said they have no solid leads on where he might be.

Richardson was driving home to nearby Sanford on May 4 after meeting friends for dinner and got into a fender bender, Perry said. He said Richardson exchanged insurance information with the driver of the other car.

Perry said Richardson inexplicably walked away, leaving his vehicle behind with his two cell phones and laptop computer inside. Police responded and towed the vehicle away, Perry said.

Perry said he received a report that Richardson was spotted on May 5 walking toward downtown Raleigh, but there have been no sightings since.

Worried that Richardson may have been injured in the crash and has become disoriented, friends have called local hospitals and homeless shelters looking for the man. Friends and volunteers spent Wednesday plastering downtown Raleigh with missing person fliers containing Richardson’s photo.

Richardson is described as 6-foot-2 to 6-foot-3 and around 280 pounds.

“He’s got tattoos so he sticks out,” Perry said.

Asked if Richardson, who moved to North Carolina from Pennsylvania a year ago, had disappeared before or has a history of substance abuse, Perry said, “He’s not that type of guy. No history of that, to our knowledge, whatsoever.”

Perry said Richardson is a “nice, fun-loving social dude.”

“Always got a smile on his face,” Perry said of his friend.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.