Public’s Riot Fears Trigger Run on Guns in California

Spurred by public fears after the worst rioting in Los Angeles history, handgun sales in California are on a pace to set the highest one-month total since records were first compiled in 1972, a state Justice Department official said Monday.

Gun sales numbered 16,000 in California for an eight-day period immediately after the rioting, compared to 10,500 for the same eight days in 1991, said Shelley Rife, a manager in the Justice Department’s Firearms Program. Handguns were especially popular, accounting for 11,300 of the 16,000 sales, she said.

At that rate, the volume could threaten the single-month record of 38,040 handgun sales set in March, 1981, when a state ballot measure was being proposed to severely restrict the sale of handguns, Rife said.

Although the Justice Department has yet to compile post-riot figures for Los Angeles, the sharp upsurge is being attributed largely to public concern over the looting, burning and bloodshed that followed the April 29 not-guilty verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating case.

“Handgun sales are real susceptible to these types of events,” Rife said, likening the boom to sales peaks after incidents such as the 1989 Stockton schoolyard slayings, in which five students were killed and 29 others wounded by a drifter wielding a semiautomatic rifle.

Gun shops in Los Angeles, where an edgy public feared further outbreaks of rioting as National Guard troops were withdrawn from the streets, reported sales increases of 50% to 500% in the first days of May. Some shop managers said they were having difficulty keeping popular handguns, rifles and shotguns in stock.

“They’re buying everything from shotguns to 9 millimeters,” said Jeff Daquila, manager of the Union War Surplus Store in San Pedro, where gun sales were three to four times higher than normal. “It’s scary. . . . They’re buying guns they’re going to carry on them. A lot of people are scared; now they’re going to defend themselves. Some of these people have never held (a gun) or even seen a gun up close.”

Tom Robertson, 30, a construction superintendent from Torrance, typified the attitude of many buyers as he shopped for a .45-caliber handgun in the $400 to $500 range. At a combination gun shop-firing range where a television showed Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates explaining why officers failed to prevent the deadly outbreak of violence, Robertson spoke angrily about gangs taking over the city.

“I definitely think every man has to protect himself,” Robertson said while, behind a glass wall, a dozen men and women created a steady bang, bang, bang firing at paper targets. “If they come down to my neighborhood, I’m going to protect myself, protect my street,” he said. “It’s ridiculous . . . at this point, I do feel the gangs have control of the neighborhoods.”

A number of concerned gun dealers say they are urging first-time buyers to take gun safety classes, triggering a secondary boom at ranges and instructional schools. The boom in sales, however, has not been limited to weapons novices.

Even many experienced gun owners are adding to their arsenals, buying not only new weapons but also stocking up on ammunition, holsters, gun clips and other accessories, shop owners said.

“Most people are looking at a shotgun and a handgun,” said Barry Kahn, the pistol-packing co-owner of B & B Sales, a North Hollywood gun shop decorated with stuffed and mounted bear, buffalo heads and other big game trophies.

The riots--and public fears over the ineffectiveness of police in stopping them--have contributed to a 40% increase in sales at B & B, Kahn said. In some instances, the buyers are people who never imagined parting with a few hundred dollars to own a firearm.

“We’re (getting) a lot of what were ultra-liberal . . . anti-gun, gun-control types,” Kahn said. “(They) have now found that in order to preserve life and limb--and whatever level of affluence they have--they have to fend and defend for themselves. The bottom line is, there’s no way law enforcement can be there to protect you.”

Kahn compared the upsurge in business to times of widespread fear when the “Hillside Strangler” and “Night Stalker” were on killing sprees in the Los Angeles area. A similar sales boom also occurred during the campaign for Proposition 15, the failed 1982 ballot measure to restrict handgun sales in California.

“This (riot) situation is not unique in that respect,” said a Northridge-based firearms distributor, who declined to identify himself or his company for security reasons. “You have a lot of people feeling threatened. They want the ability to defend themselves--that’s normal.

“After it rains, everybody sells umbrellas.”

Evidence of the widespread public concern was visible at gun shops and firing ranges throughout Los Angeles, even in upscale communities where fears of violence were previously almost nonexistent.

At the Beverly Hills Gun Club, all 17 firing lanes were full for much of Sunday, and a three-hour, $50-handgun class was sold out.

“A lot of people now are scared, and they’re making the decision to arm themselves and protect themselves against what’s going on,” said range officer Lee Frankel, who was handing out ear protectors, goggles, rental guns and ammunition. “People have had enough of being tormented and harassed. These problems have been here for years, but people are now willing to say: ‘Yes, I will protect myself.’ ”

A 45-year-old free-lance film editor described herself as a former gun-control advocate who changed her outlook after marrying a lifelong member of the National Rifle Assn. “I thought: ‘If he’s willing to protect my life, why shouldn’t I be willing to protect his?’ ” she said.

When the looting started two weeks ago, the woman and her neighbors in the Westside’s Mar Vista area checked with each other and were gratified to learn that virtually everyone on the block was armed.

“We’re a real redneck block,” she said, “and when we realized what was going on, we said the last thing we were going to do was to hassle the cops to help us.”

The police are outmanned and facing all they can handle from heavily armed gangs, she added. “When you read that the Bloods and the Crips have signed a peace treaty, what’s that about?” she asked. “It’s about killing cops.”

The Korean-owned Western Gun Shop, on Western Avenue adjacent to a burned-out mini-mall where a number of Korean-owned businesses went up in flames, has had a nearly tenfold increase in business, said manager David Joo.

Most of the clientele are Korean shop owners who fear an escalation of the racial tensions between Koreans and blacks, Joo said.

Customers are snapping up 9-millimeter Beretta handguns--the type featured in the movies “Lethal Weapon” and “Die Hard”--priced at $645, as well as shotguns and shorter-barreled “riot guns” priced from $300 to $500, he said.

“Everybody’s buying a gun,” Joo said. “We anticipate another big armed riot from the black side, and we’d better be prepared. In other words, we’d better be armed.”

Joo, who packed a Beretta in a hip holster, recalled a morning during the riots when he and a few other Koreans tried to protect a jewelry store from an armed mob of nearly 200 looters. Though police were present, at first, they withdrew when members of the mob opened fire, Joo said.

The Koreans were left to fend for themselves, firing back in a brief shootout, Joo said. “I was really scared. What we realized was, we cannot trust the National Guard or the police for protection.”

Brian Park, a Korean immigrant who entered the shop with his young daughter, looked at handguns and rifles, describing in halting English how he never planned to own a weapon.

“I changed my mind when this happened,” he said of the riots.

For many buyers, the images in the streets--or on television screens--were powerful motivators. Ron Smith, 38, a Wilmington air-conditioning installer, studiously scanned the glass display case at Southern California Sharpshooters, a Torrance-based indoor range and gun shop. He was shopping for his first gun after watching the terrifying TV footage of truck driver Reginald O. Denny being pulled from his cab and severely beaten.

“I just want to protect myself,” Smith said emphatically. “We’ve had things thrown at our trucks. Rather than getting pulled into the street and beaten to death, I’m going to shoot.”

Harold Tedrick, 31, of Harbor City was prompted to buy his first gun--a .40-millimeter pistol--after seeing the same footage.

“If that guy in the truck had been carrying a weapon it may not have happened,” said Tedrick, who works for a property management firm and travels frequently into areas that were hard-hit during the riots. Tedrick said he was urged to make the purchase by his boss, a former sheriff’s deputy with nine guns.

“I’m white and I don’t want to go in there without some sort of protection,” Tedrick said. “I value myself and I’ve got a nice truck and I don’t want to lose either one.”

Compton residents Andrea and Michael Matte recalled watching a thrift store burn down across the street from their home. They felt safe indoors, armed with “a shotgun and a Rottweiler,” but decided that the riots and three earlier burglaries were reason enough to add to their arsenal.

“Everyone where I work is looking for guns,” said Michael Matte, 23, an employee at a Torrance equipment rental yard. “We were at another gun shop earlier and people were looking for assault rifles.”

As he spoke, Andrea practiced unleashing the safety catch on a small-caliber pistol. With a grin, she joked about their “little marital dispute”--she prefers a revolver, he wants a semiautomatic.

Hans, a salesman at South Western Guns in Bell, declined to give his last name but talked at length about the 50% increase in sales in a relatively poor, working-class area. Most buyers are shop owners “scared about what happened in L.A.” Most are buying short-range pistols and shotguns costing $600 or $700.

“They buy the more expensive guns,” Hans said. “Nobody’s willing to hand over what they’ve worked so hard for. It’s not a time to save money, you know.”

Sean Collinsworth, a veteran Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, runs a private, Westwood-based company called Deadly Force that specializes in training civilians in the use of firearms. In the aftermath of the riots, he said, a dozen callers a day are expressing interest in the $125-an-hour training, which involves the use of about 10 different handguns.

“I’ve never had this high a demand,” Collinsworth said. “People are calling me up at 9 or 10 at night, 3 or 4 in the morning. It’s all Westside--all Westside. I think a lot of people are realizing the violence can reach anywhere.”

He estimated his waiting list at about a month.

One of Collinsworth’s clients, Santa Monica resident Lynne Levin, said she bought her first firearm--a .357 magnum--about five months ago to protect her home. “If I’m going to point a gun at someone, I want it to work the first time,” she said, explaining her choice of weapon. “I want it to be frightening enough that even just seeing the gun can be a deterrent.”

Now, with all the rioting, Levin is shopping for a second gun to keep at her showroom downtown, where she sells home and office items designed by artists and architects. She wants to get something a little smaller, something she can carry around.

“I’ve never even considered that before,” Levin said. “It’s a very, very sad situation. (But) I don’t want to become a victim. I have too many other things in life I enjoy.”