Los Angeles sounds like a fun place to live, and not just because it’s a 500-square-mile urinal cake.

The L.A. City Council passed an ordinance this week requiring city contractors to disclose all financial ties, donations, etc., to the National Rifle Association. The Los Angeles Times reports:



Prospective contractors now must disclose under affidavit any contracts or sponsorships they or their subsidiaries have with the NRA. The city has similar policies about companies involved in the construction of President Trump’s proposed border wall and over the historic investment in or profits from slavery.



The ordinance on the NRA was sought by Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, who cited several recent mass shootings in the U.S. At Tuesday’s meeting, he said the NRA has “been a road block to gun safety reform at every level of government now for several decades.”



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The NRA disclosure law contains more than a dozen exemptions, including contracts involving the city’s pension funds and other investment agreements.



Adding insult to injury is the fact that L.A. also abides by the state law that bars employers from inquiring as to whether job candidates have a criminal past. To be clear, in L.A., you can’t ask a potential hire about whether he has a criminal background, but you can demand that a city contractor disclose his political associations.

Prior to the vote, O’Farrell gathered outside City Hall with gun control groups, including Women Against Gun Violence.

“Let’s take a look at who we’re doing businesses with who is doing business with the NRA,” said WAGV executive director Margot Bennett.

O’Farrell also assured reporters that the city is “on firm legal ground.”

The NRA warned on Feb. 4 that it’d file a lawsuit should the ordinance pass, arguing that the measure violates the First Amendment and is “an unconstitutional effort to restrict and chill an individual’s right to associate and express their political beliefs.”

“Politicians are free to disagree with the NRA’s pro-freedom, firearm safety, and self-reliance message, but they aren’t free to censor it — as this would do when NRA supporters drop their NRA memberships for fear of losing their livelihood from being on this blacklist,” NRA attorney Chuck Michel told the L.A. Times. “This is modern day McCarthyism, and my clients are confident no judge will let it stand.”

There are at least a few L.A.-based groups that feel similarly, including the Studio City Neighborhood Council, which warned in a letter to the city that singling out organizations like the NRA “smacks of politics, makes little sense and could result in unwanted legal costs.”

Their warnings fell on deaf ears. The council approved the ordinance by a vote of 14-0. It didn’t meet so much as even a whimper of opposition.

On top of everything else that’s wrong with L.A., including its infamously seedy underbelly and rampant corruption, it will now apply a political litmus test for city contractors. Because nothing says “this is a good city to do business in” quite like monitoring a person's freedom of association.