Public Officials Urge Grass-Roots Crusade to Back Gun Controls

The schoolyard shooting in Stockton that left five children dead and 30 wounded sparked calls Wednesday for a grass-roots campaign to overcome the opposition of the powerful gun lobby and outlaw military-style assault weapons.

Reflecting a growing alliance between liberal legislators and law enforcement leaders, public officials throughout the state called for new laws to ban the possession and sale of semiautomatic weapons such as the AK-47 assault rifle used in Tuesday’s shooting.

“No reasonable person should allow the situation to remain where it’s almost as easy to buy semiautomatic weapons as it is to buy a loaf of bread,” said state Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles).

Roberti, a longtime advocate of gun control, called on Californians to “write, talk, call on talk radio, call their legislators, demand, scream, pressure, intimidate, you name it” in order to overcome the political clout of the gun lobby in Sacramento, in particular the National Rifle Assn.

Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates joined in calling for a ban on semiautomatic assault weapons. “I think reasonable gun control can be accomplished. Conservatives like myself have moved in that direction,” he said.

The semiautomatic rifle used by Patrick Edward Purdy, a drifter with a long history of arrests, is one of more than 80,000 AK-47s imported from China during the last three years. They may be sold legally across the counter with no waiting period in California and other states. Purdy’s weapon, which holds a magazine of as many as 75 powerful 7.62-millimeter bullets, was purchased by Purdy from a Sandy, Ore., gun store last August.

While aware the Stockton shooting will increase pressure to outlaw such weapons, National Rifle Assn. lobbyist David S. Marshall said his organization will oppose any restriction on the sale of AK-47s and other military-style assault rifles. Such a law would infringe on the rights of gun collectors and target shooters who own a wide range of semiautomatic weapons, he said.

“I think a lot of people like the variety,” he said. “People go out to plink with it (the AK-47).”

In order to prevent incidents such as the Stockton shooting, Marshall said his organization favors tougher prison sentences for violent criminals and the elimination of probation and parole for people like Purdy.

“If you ban the sale, all you do is ban the sale to law-abiding citizens,” he said. “It’s a placebo legislation. The idea that you could have prevented this by banning or registering semiautomatic weapons just doesn’t fly.”

Last year, a bill by Assemblyman Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles) that would have outlawed nine specific types of semiautomatic assault weapons was rejected by a vote of 28 to 46.

“The NRA will arouse 100 people to write a letter in one voting district,” Roos said.

This year, Roberti and Roos are both planning to introduce legislation that would ban the sale of military assault rifles, including the AK-47, the Israeli Uzi and the American AR-15.

In an apparent effort to take advantage of public sentiment after the Stockton shooting, the Senate leader said he would attempt to rush the bill through the committee process and to the Senate floor by the end of February.

“The only group that can defeat the NRA is the public,” Roberti said. “No matter how much power you have around here, it’s not enough. You have to be armed by public opinion, then you can win.”

The difficulty of enacting gun controls was noted by veteran political consultant Sal Russo, who helped orchestrate Gov. George Deukmejian’s narrow victory when he first ran for governor in 1982. A key factor in Deukmejian’s win was his firm opposition to a handgun control initiative that was overwhelmingly rejected on the same ballot.

“Guns are an important part of our society--probably having to do with the way we blazed through the West,” Russo said. “People take guns as a right and are very reluctant to let people start meddling with that right.

In Washington, the Stockton shooting also sparked controversy over the lack of federal restrictions on the sale of assault rifles. Under federal law, individuals seeking to buy such weapons must fill out a form and answer such questions as whether they have been convicted of a felony, are drug addicts or illegal aliens.

“That’s the only federal law on the books,” said Jerry Ruddin, an official with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. “If you answer all of the questions in the negative, then you can purchase the firearm. There is no requirement for checking into the truth of those statements.”

In addition to Chinese-made AK-47s, police frequently encounter criminals armed with the more-expensive, Israeli-made Uzi assault weapons, authorities said. Since 1980, about 75,000 Uzi assault rifles have been sold in the United States, according to C. B. Stern, operations manager for Action Arms Ltd. of Philadelphia, the exclusive U.S. importer of the weapon.

But the cheaper Chinese AK-47--a semiautomatic copy of the famous Soviet fully automatic combat weapon--has easily outstripped the Uzi in sales in recent years.

The popularity of the weapon is enhanced by the fact that many sell for $300 to $400, hundreds of dollars cheaper than most competitors.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms approves the importation of the Chinese AK-47 for “sporting purposes” under federal regulations. But critics of the weapon maintain that it was designed for killing people, not sport.

Charlie Ursitti, general manager of Sile Distributors Inc. of New York, the company that imported the weapon used in the Stockton shooting, said that his firm imports about 1,000 Chinese AK-47s a month. The weapons are then distributed to licensed gun dealers and wholesalers across the country, he said.

Like most defenders of the sale of assault weapons, Ursitti blames misuse of the firearms--and not the guns themselves--for tragedies such as the Stockton shooting.

“I just felt real bad for the (gun) industry,” Ursitti said regarding the Stockton shooting, “because guns don’t kill people, people kill people. It just happens to be that instrument that was used.”

Steven Langford, marketing director for ChinaSports Inc. of Santa Fe Springs, considered to be the largest U.S. importer of the Chinese-made AK-47s, contended that “most of the people who buy the guns, use them to plink with (shooting cans). The other use is for hunting small game and medium size game.”

Also contributing to coverage of the Stockton shooting were Times staff writers Peter H. King, Edward J. Boyer, John Dart, Paul Feldman, John Kendall, Ronald B. Taylor and Carol McGraw in Los Angeles; Eric Malnic in Portland and Sandy, Ore.; Anne Roark in Stockton; Daniel M. Weintraub in Sacramento, and Josh Getlin in Washington.