Two-Pronged Attack on Guns Launched

West Hollywood made front-page headlines earlier this year as the first city in California to ban the sale of Saturday night specials.

Cities from Los Angeles to Compton quickly jumped on the bandwagon, pledging to enact their own laws against the cheap pistols.

But West Hollywood officials say they soon discovered that enforcing its milestone legislation was no easy task because of potential loopholes that let guns with minor cosmetic changes slip through the cracks.

Now the city has rewritten its law with detailed definitions of Saturday night specials that officials hope will cast a wide net over all such weapons sold in the city. West Hollywood’s revised law, adopted Monday night, comes as Saturday night specials are facing nationwide scrutiny.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) introduced a bill last week to prohibit production of such “junk guns” in the United States. Boxer’s measure would extend a law banning the import of such weapons to those manufactured domestically.

Boxer called the guns the choice of street criminals because they are cheap, easily available and compact. The weapons, which sell for as little as $70, can easily fit in a front pants pocket.

According to a recent report by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, eight of every 10 guns traced to crime scenes in 1995 were so-called junk guns.

“We must stand up to the special interest gun lobby in this country, be courageous and say that if these guns are too unsafe . . . to be imported into this country, then they are too unsafe to be made in this country,” Boxer told a news conference Tuesday in front of Parker Center police headquarters in Los Angeles.

Boxer was joined by law enforcement authorities and by the family of one victim who was killed by teenage assailants using a Saturday night special.

The gun control advocates argued that such weapons should also be banned because they are unsafe and unreliable. Low-quality materials and a lack of security devices cause the guns to discharge at will and even explode when fired, the authorities said.

Boxer’s legislation could have a wide-ranging effect locally because an estimated 80% of the Saturday night specials produced in the United States come from companies in the area.

“Southern California is acknowledged as the unofficial capital of the junk gun industry,” Assistant Police Chief Ronald Banks of the Los Angeles Police Department said at the news conference. Banks attended in place of Chief Willie L. Williams, who was out of town.

Boxer’s legislation has won strong support among law enforcement across the state, as 27 police chiefs and sheriffs have endorsed the bill, among them Williams and San Francisco Police Chief Fred Lau.

Gun rights advocates denounced Boxer’s bill, as well as the West Hollywood ban, as attempts to infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens to arm themselves.

“It’s another back-door attempt at stripping away constitutional rights,” said Steven Helsley, the state liaison for the National Rifle Assn. “It’s a nuisance. There’s a notion that these guns are the ones used in crime or that these guns will blow up in your hand. That is horsefeathers.”

The critics said such bans are doomed to fail because gun manufacturers can easily sidestep the rules by modifying the weapons. For example, adjustable sites can be added and barrels can be lengthened to avoid the various laws, Helsley said.

The gun advocates also fear that such measures will inevitably take guns out of the hands of police.

“Firearms are not the problem. It’s the abuse of them that is the problem,” said Bob Grego, a spokesman for the California Rifle and Pistol Assn., based in Fullerton. “We need to go after the perpetrators, the criminals, not the guns.”

Grego’s group and the NRA have sued West Hollywood over its law, contending that the city cannot adopt an ordinance overriding state law. The California Legislature has rejected repeated attempts by lawmakers to enact similar bans on Saturday night specials.

“The West Hollywood law is illegal, according to state law,” Grego said.

The lawsuit has been filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, but no hearing has been set.

Meanwhile, West Hollywood officials are moving forward with preparations to enforce their revised ban. The city has included in its revision a process for gun manufacturers to appeal.

The city is expected to issue a list this week of firearms that are prohibited under the new law.

Officials adopted the ordinance as an urgency measure Monday so that it would take effect immediately. They expanded the definition of Saturday night specials to include all handguns that lack safety features and solid forged frames. Most of the banned weapons are made from softer cast material, the officials said.

“It’s very easy for a manufacturer to make cosmetic changes to get around the definition,” Mayor John Heilman said. “And that’s why we needed a tighter definition that closes that loophole.”