Feeling Angry, He Blasts Away : Train shooting should prompt new gun laws

Colin Ferguson was just another face among the throng of rush-hour commuters on a Long Island Rail Road train headed out of New York City Tuesday evening. But, as his fellow passengers would discover, Ferguson was a time bomb waiting to explode.

And explode he did, with deadly help from a nine-millimeter automatic handgun. The Jamaican-born Brooklyn resident unleashed a barrage from a weapon he apparently purchased legally here in California last May.

Passengers wrestled the gunman to the floor just three minutes after the shooting began; but that was enough time for five to be fatally wounded and 18 others to be injured. The carnage was motivated by intense racial hatred--of Asians, of whites, of “Uncle Tom” blacks--police said after a note was found in Ferguson’s possession.

The gunman, like countless other killers, was able to commit his crime with great efficiency because of relatively easy access to a concealable handgun with a high-volume ammunition clip.

Current laws can do only so much. In California, where buyers must wait 15 days for delivery of a handgun, rifle or shotgun, Ferguson was able to put down money at a Long Beach-area gun shop and bide his time. As a legal U.S. resident with no criminal record, there was no apparent legal reason to deny him the gun.

The shooting shows that the recently passed Brady bill, which requires a five-day national waiting period for purchasers of handguns, is not nearly enough. Congress must take more restrictive steps, as President Clinton urged Wednesday.

Opponents of gun control argue that a society with more weapons in legal hands is a safer society. But tell that to Los Angeles-area authorities: Fearing the possibility of “copycat” crimes, they quickly and wisely stepped up police patrols on Metrolink commuter trains.

The United States has four times as many firearms as it did in 1950; is it more secure now? More than 22,400 people were murdered by firearms last year, up from 3,630 in 1962.

It’s hard to imagine how anyone can insist that more guns make law-abiding people safer. Yet some organizations vigorously maintain that greater peace of mind comes from owning a gun. Has the mountain of guns in circulation yielded a greater sense of security when a person takes a walk? Pauses in a park? Attends school? Or rides a commuter train?

The Times believes that a safer society begins with more restrictions on access to guns. We have called for a comprehensive ban on handguns and assault weapons, with only a few exceptions. We can’t imagine a better time for Congress to take up such a proposal.