UC Calls for Increased Gun Control : Hostage drama: Berkeley and school officials say people will never be safe until the weapons are impossible to obtain.

One day after a hostage drama left two people dead and nine others injured at a popular student hangout, UC Berkeley groped toward normality Friday amid calls for increased gun control to prevent similar tragedies.

Just hours after police killed Mehrdad Dashti, who used three guns--including an assault-style weapon--to hold dozens of students hostage, Berkeley Mayor Loni Hancock declared: “We will never be safe in any community until we make it impossible to get these weapons.”

That call was echoed Friday by UC Berkeley Chancellor Chang-lin Tien, who told a news conference that tougher restrictions are needed to stem the “the flood of guns that are easily available.”

California law already prohibits the sale of assault-style weapons, such as the Mac-11 semiautomatic pistol Dashti used. In addition, any such weapons acquired before the law took effect last January must be registered.

Handgun sales in California require a 15-day waiting period and background check, which will be extended to all firearms when a new law takes effect Jan. 1.

The new gun control law, authored by Assemblyman Lloyd Connelly (D-Sacramento), also further restricts the ability of the mentally ill to purchase firearms.

Current law prohibits anyone diagnosed as mentally unfit by a court from buying a gun. The new law would extend that prohibition to anyone detained by the police for a 72-hour psychiatric examination.

Dashti was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic by Alameda County health officials, but it is unclear if he would have been affected by the new regulations, said Gene Erbin, an aide to Connelly. The ban would only have applied to Dashti if he had been previously detained by police as a mental case, he said.

Pam Pryor, a spokeswoman for the National Rifle Assn., argued that California already has the toughest gun control laws in the nation and more stringent regulations would not have deterred Dashti from acquiring his weapons.

“These laws don’t work,” she said. “Yet some people call for more and more restrictions without looking at the criminal justice system and the mental health system as the cause of the problem.”

Luis Tolley, Western regional director of Handgun Control Inc., said the Berkeley shootings strengthen the case for legislation pending in Congress that would impose a nationwide ban on assault weapons and a seven-day waiting period for handgun sales.

“California is not an island,” he said. “Weapons can be purchased in other states and smuggled into California. We won’t be safe until we have a national law.”

While both sides debated the merits of increased gun control, many of the hostages who narrowly escaped death at Henry’s Publick House & Grille tried to get on with their lives.

Darrin Freitag, a senior from Woodland Hills, was trapped in the bar for an hour but allowed to leave with some of his wounded friends. Freitag, who is dark-haired, attributed his good fortune to the fact that the gunman, who had a grudge against blond Americans, thought he looked Italian.

It was with some chagrin that Freitag said that after the hostage ordeal, which ended at 7:30 a.m., he went to class Thursday and later reported for work at a local pub.

“I’m almost embarrassed I’m taking it so well,” he said.

The most seriously wounded of the ex-hostages, Karen Grundhofer, a senior from Newport Beach, remained hospitalized with seven gunshot wounds. However, none of the bullets hit a vital organ and Grundhofer was reported in stable condition at Pacific Presbyterian Hospital in San Francisco.

“Another three inches either way and she would have been dead,” said her father, John F. Grundhofer. “We just thank the Lord she’s alive.”

Henry’s, located in the Durant Hotel, one block from campus, did not appear as badly damaged by the hostage incident as first feared. It is expected to open today. The hotel and its dining room were open for business Friday.

The campus appeared outwardly calm with students socializing around Sproul Plaza at lunchtime, but there was an undercurrent of fear and confusion.

“On the outside, when I interact with people, everything is normal, but on the inside I’m depressed. There’s been a lot of death around here,” said Bryan Curley, a 20-year-old junior from Glendora.

“None of us have gotten to class yet. This is something that’s going to stay with us for a long time. And I know it’s something I’ll never forget,” said Kin Jung, an English major from Ventura, who said he narrowly escaped being taken hostage because he left the pub to use the restroom shortly before Dashti seized it.

“The scariest part of the night was when he said he was going to start the executions,” Jung said. “Then we heard eight staggered gunshots. For all we knew he was in there executing people. I was so scared for my friends.”

Middle Eastern students and campus officials fear that one lingering legacy of the rampage by the Iranian-born Dashti may be increased discrimination against Arab or Iranian students.

“It’s the last thing we need. People already don’t trust us,” said Shaheed Amanullah, executive vice president of the student government and a leader in Muslim student groups.