Stop UCLA Police from Purchasing and Deploying Military Weapons Banned in the LAPD

We demand that the UCLA Police Department immediately stop purchasing and stop deploying 40mm projectile weapons, which were banned in the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for crowd control purposes in January 2026 due to a federal court order.

We are presenting this petition at the UCLA Police Department’s annual public meeting to discuss its Military Equipment Use Policy on Wednesday, November 4, 2026 at 10am on zoom (click here to register). Please join us!

On June 10, 2024, UCLA Police shot a UCLA undergraduate student who was attempting to comply with police orders in the chest with a 40mm projectile near Dodd Hall on the UCLA campus. This student was hospitalized for two days because of a contusion to the heart and a bruised lung. When fired, the 40mm projectiles travel at 200 miles per hour. A 2023 Amnesty International report found that being shot with a kinetic impact projectile can cause permanent disabilities including “eyeball rupture . . . skull fracture and brain injury, lacerations, bone fractures, rupture of internal organs/internal haemorrhaging.”

The UCLA Police Department routinely deploys 40mm projectile launchers to suppress peaceful student activities. In the picture on the left, taken on April 30, 2025 in Bruin Plaza on the UCLA campus, the UCLA Police officer shown in red is holding a 40mm projectile launcher. There was no violent or criminal activity of any kind occurring. Students were merely watching a movie. In the picture on the right, taken on June 5, 2025 after students peacefully picketed in Royce Quad outside the inauguration ceremony of Chancellor Julio Frenk, a UCLA Police officer is holding a 40mm projectile launcher.

In an email on February 24, 2026, Steve Lurie, Associate Vice Chancellor for Campus and Community Safety, stated that UCLA will “continue to have them available to our officers” despite the prohibition on LAPD’s use of these weapons (see also Daily Bruin article). According to its September 2025 Military Equipment Inventory, UCLA Police currently owns 18 Def-Tec/LMT 40mm launchers and 400 rounds of 40mm munitions, and requested an additional five Def-Tec/LMT 40mm launchers and 441 rounds of 40mm munitions. In September 2026, UCLA Police requested to “to increase the authorized number of Def-Tec 40mm eXact Impact munitions (Model #6325) from 300 to 350.”

Members of the UCLA community and the greater Los Angeles community have been severely injured by these weapons and other “less lethal” weapons, including 18mm pepperball launchers and rounds. On June 10, 2024, UCLA Police fired pepper balls with the chemical irritant nonivamide at protesters near Dodd Hall, including two faculty members. On May 2, 2024, in at least 25 incidents that potentially violate California state law, California Highway Patrol officers carrying 40mm projectile launchers on Royce Quad “appeared to aim their weapons at the eye level of protesters or fired them into crowds that didn’t appear to present an immediate threat to life or serious injury. In some instances, the officers approached kneeling protesters with the launchers aimed at point-blank range” (screenshot from video by Sergio Olmos, CalMatters). 

On June 8, 2025, LAPD shot a UCLA undergraduate student with a 40mm aerial flash bang round, breaking her skull, causing bleeding and a blood clot in her brain, resulting in weeks of hospitalization. She was in downtown Los Angeles taking pictures of a protest against ICE. On January 9, 2026, DHS agents shot two people in Santa Ana with projectile weapons, blinding both. One is twenty-one years old and doctors were not able to remove some of the shrapnel in his skull. One is thirty-one years old and said, “I remember hitting the ground and feeling like my eye exploded in my head.” On January 31, 2026, a law enforcement officer shot a twenty-three-year-old Los Angeles resident with a projectile containing bright green paint, blinding him in his right eye. On March 28, 2026, a DHS agent shot a USC freshman student with a less-lethal projectile, blinding him in the left eye. He was photographing and documenting a protest in downtown Los Angeles when he was shot. On April 16, 2026, a federal jury awarded $11.8 million to a man who was blinded when the LAPD shot him with a 37mm projectile on October 28, 2020, when he was a student at Cal State Long Beach. 

On May 10, 2021, the US District Court for the Central District of California granted a preliminary injunction against the LAPD stating that “an officer may use 40mm less-lethal munitions only when the officer reasonably believes that a suspect is violently resisting arrest or poses an immediate threat of violence of physical harm,” “The 40mm launcher must not be used to target the head, neck, face, eyes, kidneys, chest, groin or spine of a person,” and “The 40 mm and 37 mm launchers should only be fired at a distance of five feet or greater from another person, unless an officer or other person is attacked and there is a threat of imminent serious harm.” The Court found that this “limits LAPD’s use of the launchers in order to ensure that the safety of the protestors and the officers can both be achieved.” Because the LAPD violated this preliminary injunction multiple times (see this New York Times video analysis), the Court on January 15, 2026 banned the LAPD from using 40mm projectile weapons for crowd control. 

This ban is specific to the LAPD because of its multiple violations of the preliminary injunction, but the preliminary injunction established the Court’s standard of safety for police use of 40mm munitions. Thus any police force that violates this standard, including the UCLA Police, risks a similar result if sued. 

When UCLA Police shot the UCLA undergraduate student in the chest on June 10, 2024, the student was neither violently resisting arrest nor threatening violence. The only command officers issued was to “move back,” and the student attempted to comply, but LAPD blocked the rear of the crowd, preventing people from being able to move backward, while UCLA Police pushed from the front. The student could hardly move, and after one UCLA Police officer shoved the student with a baton, another aimed at the student’s chest and fired a 40mm launcher from a few yards away. The actions of the UCLA Police on that day violated the standard of safety set out in the injunction and exposes UCLA to the same legal risk.

In response to the UC Board of Regents’ approval in September 2025 of the UCLA Police’s request for additional “less lethal” military weapons, Michael Gallagher of the Daily Bruin wrote: “Having police armed with riot gear and launchers that can seriously injure or even kill actively discourages students from utilizing their right to protest. . . Instead of engaging in discussion, UCLA decided to arm university police and frighten students into conformity.”

The UCLA Police has already shot a student with a 40mm munition, injuring him seriously and violating the standard of safety set by US federal courts. No student or UCLA community member should be the next person shot. The fact that the LAPD violated court orders multiple times when using these weapons illustrates how police forces often do not respect commonsense court-ordered guidelines on their use. The purchasing and deployment of any weapon used by any police force, including the UCLA Police, that jeopardizes our safety must be stopped immediately.