Traditional Volley of Gunfire : Bell Group Hopes to Disarm New Year’s Eve Celebrators

It didn’t take much for Carol Novak to convince fellow residents that this city has a problem with firearms and New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Douglas Marshall said he found a bullet hole through the fender of his car last New Year’s Eve.

Dexter Day said his roof leaked during the last major rainfall because it was pocked with bullet holes--reminders of past New Year’s celebrations.

And Louis Hurey, a resident of the Del Rio Trailer Park, said he has seen how susceptible mobile homes and trailers are to stray bullets that go up--and which eventually must come down--in the night.

But the practice took its worst toll four years ago, when an intoxicated Bell resident went outside at the midnight hour to fire his gun. An argument ensued and he ended up shooting and killing one of his guests instead.

Found Plenty of Help

So when Novak approached city officials and community members in recent months about a campaign to stop the shooting, she found plenty of help.

“Everybody said last year was terrible. I think that’s why it struck such a chord,” said Novak, an electronics switching technician with Pacific Bell.

The result is a group called Neighbors For A Safe New Year’s Eve, which wants to discourage, or even eliminate, the use of firearms to celebrate the holiday.

The group--with help from the Bell High School Key Club, the Maywood Girl Scouts, South Gate REACT, Liaison Citizen Youth Group and members of the Bell Neighborhood Watch--will begin a door-to-door campaign Saturday.

The volunteers plan to inundate the city and surrounding communities with their message: “Please don’t use guns to celebrate!” The motto appears on 10,000 flyers and 600 posters that the group hopes to distribute by Dec. 31.

The City Council and Bell-Cudahy Police Chief Frank Fording have both given approving nods to the effort. “New Year’s Eve over here sounds like a war zone,” said Councilman George Cole, adding, “I think it’s great to have that kind of thing happen in the community, where people take the initiative on their own.”

Meeting Since July

The core group of supporters-- Novak and her husband, Frank Kearns; Marshall, Day, Hurey and Adelaido Vazquez--have been meeting twice a month since July to devise a plan. By consensus, they decided to make the campaign upbeat and positive by using “family and community” as the theme for the flyers and posters.

They have made their pitch to a myriad of organizations and Novak said they found broad support. The South Gate High School printing shop offered to print the materials for the price of the paper. The Mirabal Mortuary, the residents and owner of the Del Rio Trailer Park, the Bell Jaycees and Cole have donated money. Endorsements have come from others, too, like the South Gate Chamber of Commerce, the Bell Neighborhood Watch and the PTA presidents at Corona Elementary and Bell High schools.

Novak said most merchants who have been asked have agreed to display the no-firearms poster. But some refused when they saw the logo depicting two guns inside a red circle with a slash across it. “They thought it was for gun control,” she said.

Since the posters were already printed, the group decided not to change the design. “People will just have to read it and see it’s not (about) gun control,” Novak said.

Police Chief Fording said that except for the one death four years ago, no one has been seriously injured or killed as a result of the firing of guns on New Year’s Eve. But, he said, it’s a “growing menace” that is getting worse each year.

Next Day’s Discovery

The department receives about 10 to 15 reports on New Year’s Day “as people discover bullets that have pierced their home or vehicles and expended projectiles on the sidewalk or roadway.”

Fireworks are allowed in Bell but discharging firearms is a misdemeanor offense. Fording said, though, that it is often hard to enforce the firearms ordinance because the offense must be witnessed by an officer or a citizen before an arrest can be made. Most residents are reluctant to serve as witnesses, however, because it could pit them against a neighbor in court. “They don’t want to ruin their relationship with their neighbor over this one incident,” Fording said.

There is an average of three to five arrests every year for discharging firearms, he said. The maximum penalty is six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Through public information and education, the group “hopes to impress upon citizens how dangerous and life-threatening this practice has become. What we hope will happen with the grass-roots campaign is for it to continue to spread into other cities and reduce or eliminate the problem,” Fording said.

Vazquez said he sees his mission in a different way. “I see this program for the children,” he said explaining that children frightened by gunfire will associate New Year’s Eve with firearms and their memories of the holiday will be marred.

“Our children have to have a good New Year’s Eve,” he added. “This has to stop.”