On Guard With Guns, Prayer : Safety: Many Korean-Americans rush to buy weapons and vow to protect their businesses. Others pray for peace in churches.

Fearing a repeat of last year’s civil unrest, many Korean-American business owners are stocking up on weapons and ammunition in preparation for verdicts in the trial of four police officers accused of violating Rodney G. King’s civil rights.

At the same time, other Korean-Americans are flocking to hundreds of churches in Southern California to pray for peace.

“We’re not going to let (rioters) destroy our businesses and lives again,” said Jay Shim, owner of a Koreatown liquor store. “This time, before they come to our stores to loot and burn, they had better be ready to lay down their lives because we’re prepared to shoot.”

But the Rev. Teresa Um of Wilton Mission Church--a few blocks away--said: “There is nothing that love cannot melt. There is power in praying, and people are flocking to churches to pray for peace and reconciliation.”

Gun shops catering to Korean-Americans report an unprecedented increase in weapons purchases. At Western Gun Shop, the largest gun store in Koreatown, where most customers are of Korean descent, sales have doubled in recent months, manager David Chu said.

“A lot of people want to be able to protect themselves and their businesses, fearing that there may be another riot,” he said.

“Whenever there is a rash of shootings involving Korean-American shopkeepers, gun sales go up,” said Si-Young Cho, an employee at the store.

More women are buying guns, he said; about 20% of his recent customers have been women, compared to a handful in the past.

“Sometimes, when I try to show them how to use a gun, (women) turn their heads and tell me to just wrap it up,” he said. “They don’t even want to look at the gun they’re buying--it scares them.”

Shim, a veteran of the South Korean and U.S. armies, said he has stockpiled weapons, ammunition and bulletproof vests for himself and his employees. He is determined not to relive last year’s nightmare when he barricaded himself in his store for four days and nights to protect his business from looters.

Tony Chang, who camped with a rifle on the rooftop of his auto repair shop for four nights last year, vowed to do the same thing if verdicts in the federal trial unleash rioting.

“The only reason my business wasn’t destroyed last year was because my employees and I protected it,” he said.

Chang’s sentiment is echoed by numerous angry and bitter Korean-American merchants who are still struggling to recover from the economic and emotional devastation of the riots. They say the difficulties they have encountered from government agencies in their efforts to rebuild have eroded their faith in American institutions and politicians.

“We’re preparing ourselves because we can’t count on the police to protect us,” said Sung-Ho Joo, president of the Korean-American Groceries’ Victims Assn., whose market was looted and burned to the ground last year.

“Police Chief (Willie) Williams says he will protect us but when we meet with people under him we get no such assurance. All we hear is the same old story that the Police Department is short-staffed.”

Cho said most of his new customers have never owned guns, but are buying them now because they are afraid of trouble erupting at the conclusion of the trial.

In Glendale, Garo Venlian, whose gun store is next to a Korean grocery, reported a similar run on gun purchases by Korean-American customers from Koreatown and Hollywood. “They just come into the store after doing their grocery shopping,” he said.

The Korean-American community and the Los Angeles Police Department are worried about the proliferation of arms.

Youngbin Kim, deputy director of the Korean Youth and Community Center, said armed conflict between African-Americans and Korean-Americans must be avoided “at all costs . . . “

Kim, who has been meeting with Korean-American business owners and shopkeepers to prepare contingency plans, said the Police Department has to do more to assure Korean-Americans that their businesses will be protected.

Lt. John Dunkin, an LAPD spokesman, said he believes the department has done just that.

“When Chief Williams says the department is prepared, he means that and we are,” Dunkin said. “Certainly everyone in the country has a right to keep and bear arms. But we believe it is our responsibility to protect the members of the community.”

It is “extremely important for people not to overreact,” Dunkin said. Police officers at the scene of any unrest would be endangered by people indiscriminately shooting, regardless of whether they were protecting their property, he added.

Staffers at the Korean Youth and Community Center, the largest Korean-American community organization in the country, are preparing a directory for police of Korean-American business owners who could be targets if there is more unrest.

Korean-American establishments suffered losses of more than $400 million in last year’s rioting, according to the Korean-American Chamber of Commerce and Korean-American relief organizations.

Less than 25% of about 2,000 businesses destroyed or damaged in the riots have started up again, a study by a coalition of community organizations says. Liquor store owners have faced stiff opposition from politicians and residents who want to restrict the number of liquor licenses in their neighborhoods.

“What we are faced with is confiscation of our property first by lawbreakers, then by politicians,” said Joo, referring to the recent Los Angeles City Council vote reversing the Planning Commission’s decision permitting the rebuilding of liquor stores destroyed in the riots. “If they want to close liquor stores, they should compensate us for it.”

Even as business owners arm themselves, prayer groups in hundreds of Korean churches in Southern California are praying that no violence will occur at the trial’s conclusion.

At the Korean Apostolate at St. Gregory Church in Koreatown, two dozen elderly women have been praying for several weeks. One tearful grandmother voiced the fear of many Korean-Americans when she prayed on a recent Sunday afternoon:

“We are so frightened that we’re afraid to step out of our homes. Now we hear that there is going to be another riot. Lord, please thaw peoples’ frozen hearts and prevent another disaster from happening.”

At the 6,000-member Young Nak (Eternal Pleasure) Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles near Chinatown, Friday night prayer meetings have been devoted to praying for the peaceful resolution of problems in Los Angeles.

“Violence cannot be stopped with violence,” said Young Nak’s senior pastor, the Rev. Hee-Min Park.

The rush to buy arms is even unnerving some the gun shop owners.

“I hope that my customers won’t have to use the weapons they buy from here,” said Sung-Dae Kim, who is a partner in Western Gun Shop with Richard Park, a prominent Korean-American Democrat who contributed to President Clinton’s campaign.

Sang Hahn, owner of Sam Woo Sportsmen’s Club and a Koreatown real estate salesman, also is worried. He said he quizzes his customers before making a transaction to make sure they are competent and responsible to handle firearms.

Almost a year after the riots, liquor store owner Shim is bitter that police did not protect Korean-American businesses. “(Former Police Chief) Daryl Gates should be in prison for what he did to us. If he had any honor, he would have apologized to the community,” Shim said.

“I want to leave Los Angeles,” he said. “It’s becoming too dangerous to live and work here.”

Such concerns are not limited to Korean-Americans living in Los Angeles. In Fountain Valley in Orange County, Korean-American market owner Sam Ra worries that new disturbances could spread.

“Just this morning, my wife and I discussed whether we should get a gun,” he said.

He wonders if all the talk about possible rioting might make it more likely to happen.

“My biggest worry is the hype by the mainstream media,” said Kapson Yim Lee, editor of the Korea Times English Edition in Los Angeles.

“Do the men who decide what should go on the evening news or on the front pages of big-city papers ever think about the effect their coverage will have on the lives of immigrants from Korea? They are sitting in their safe, lofty places enjoying the show, at whose expense, I ask.”