Cheap Guns, Very Costly Results

Gun advocates are right about one thing: A statewide ban in California on the sale of cheap, easily hidden “Saturday night specials” would not end handgun violence. No one measure by a single state can dissolve a nationwide problem.

However, a state ban on these guns, which serve no legitimate sporting purpose, would surely restore a great measure of sanity to our streets, schools and lives.

That’s why thoughtful leaders are embracing a ban such as those already in place in Maryland, South Carolina and parts of Illinois. The latest to do so include Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams, Sheriff Sherman Block and Assemblyman Louis Caldera (D-Los Angeles). The three spoke this week at a hearing of Caldera’s Assembly Select Committee.

The need is tragically obvious. A study released the day before Caldera’s hearing was held found that 47,888 Californians were gunshot victims last year. The number of Californians killed by guns jumped a sickening 30% between 1989 and 1993, higher than the national average.

It’s no wonder that the problem is worse here; Southern California is heaven for the manufacture of the cheap handguns responsible for the vast majority of these gun deaths. A recent study found that seven of the region’s gun manufacturers churned out more than 80% of all small-caliber guns made in the entire country during 1992. According to another study, .25-caliber guns made by one Southern California company alone were the weapons most frequently recovered at crime scenes by the LAPD in 1990-91.

And while the guns may be cheap--as low as $25--their ready availability has proven exceedingly expensive. Firearms-related violence for California alone is now estimated to cost more than $18 billion a year. More than $1.1 billion of that is in medical care, most of it borne by the taxpayer; the rest involves lost income, productivity and quality of life.

Enough. These instruments of mayhem and human destruction must go.