Important Step Against Gun Violence : West Hollywood ban on commercial sales, though mainly symbolic, is valuable

With only one gun dealer remaining within West Hollywood’s city limits, the council’s unanimous vote Tuesday to ban handgun sales by commercial dealers is more a symbolic than substantive step against violent crime. The ordinance does not ban private sales between individuals. Nor is it likely to stop Southern California’s thriving underground trade in firearms or its ceaseless production of cheap handguns. But the West Hollywood handgun sales ban is still a practical move. Like ordinances by Los Angeles and several other area cities last year to limit ammunition sales, this ban on sales of guns themselves may well spread. Indeed, Compton and Huntington Park are considering similar proposals.

Violence wrought by armed gangs remains a concern here as elsewhere. Despite indications that the rate of violent crime has dipped in recent years, the horror of drive-by shootings and ambushes continues to demand new policies.

For example, California voters will decide in March whether to impose the death penalty on those convicted of drive-by killings. Gov. Pete Wilson, Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren and Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti all are proposing to attack gang violence by treating juvenile offenders as adults.

Their get-even-tougher approach resonates with the concerns of many Californians. But long-term success against juvenile violence clearly requires more. It requires coordination among neighborhood groups, law enforcement and civic leaders not only to enforce existing laws and punish offenders but, more important, to prevent the spread of gang activity.

Last fall, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan outlined one antigang approach. After the fatal shooting of 3-year-old Stephanie Kuhen by gang members when a car driven by her father made a wrong turn down a Cypress Park alley, Riordan convened his “Street Violence Working Group,” comprising representatives from key city departments and community groups. The mayor outlined an ambitious, coordinated effort to clamp down on gang activity using existing city and county resources and promised federal funding and local expertise.

Since the much-ballyhooed first meeting of his antigang task force in September, the group has not met. No one has been named to head the committee, no second meeting has been scheduled. The mayor’s intentions are good. Let’s see action. The adoption by Los Angeles of limits on handgun sales would help enormously.