‘Kids Know How to Get Weapons Faster Than You and I Would’

Last Monday, President Clinton announced a program under the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to track the illegal sale of guns to minors. During a test of a similar program in Boston, killing of youths by gunfire fell to zero. Inglewood has been chosen as one of 17 large and small cities for a larger pilot program. Police Chief Oliver Thompson spoke with MARY REESE BOYKIN about his expectations of the program, which uses serial numbers to trace weapons back to their initial purchasers and the dealers who sold them.

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I think that the reason Inglewood was chosen as part of the federal program to track the sale of guns to juveniles is because we appear to have problems in the area of youths using guns in crimes, particularly because of gang proliferation. We would be a good project area to test how we can attack the supply of guns to youths by using prevention and intervention, as well as incarcerations.

To many kids, a gun is a status symbol, a prestige piece. Kids will tell you that they have guns to protect themselves, to use as a defense when they are attacked. Kids don’t always have guns to use against someone else; they use guns for self defense. Or a kid may use a gun offensively when words fail. They substitute the weapons for the inappropriate skills they have in talking things through.

Even before the President’s announcement on Monday of tracking gun sales to minors, Inglewood had a program that addresses the use of guns in juvenile crimes. Last October, we were awarded a $700,000 [federal grant] to create a program where gang task officers, a deputy probation officer and a deputy district attorney work together to help us design ordinances and injunctions against the various gangs in the city.

I am a past president of NOBLE, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. The organization has always had a strong posture on gun control because we know the horrendous damage that weapons have played in the African American community.

The gun tracking program is under the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. the way that the program will work is that an Inglewood police officer catches a juvenile with a gun. We confiscate the gun and report the serial number to the bureau. All weapons are supposed to be registered from the manufacturer, whether the weapon is an import, American made, an export. Through the serial number, the bureau can tell you where the gun came from, where it was put out for distribution, who the dealer was, whom it was sold to.

Taking this information, an officer goes to the original purchaser and says, “You’re the last one who owned this gun. What happened?” The person might say, “The gun was stolen from me during a break-in.” The officer checks with the police or sheriff’s department to verify whether the weapon was reported as stolen. If it checks out to be stolen, the it is a matter of saying to the kid, “OK, where did you get the weapon? If it is reported stolen, now you are in possession of stolen property, a felony that could mean state prison time.” The police department is working both ends until we get back to how the person came up with the weapon. if we can develop appropriate cases, we will go for prosecution [of dealers] at the federal and state levels.

And how do youths get guns in the first place? Kids get guns like anybody else. They are sophisticated enough to do things that adults have been doing all of their lives. In fact, kids know how to get weapons faster than you and I would because they have a network. They know whom to ask, they know where to go, they know how much it costs. Kids aren’t stupid.

They get weapons legally, like through parents who have them. But most of the time they get them illegally. I have had kids say, “Chief, I got the gun in a burglary, a home robbery, the robbery of a person. I got it from the guy down the street.” Kids get guns because guns are out there. Despite the position of those who argue in favor of Article II of the Constitution, the right to bear arms, America has too darn many guns.

And you know what’s really scary out there? There is a growing number of folks in our society who will supply guns to kids as long as kids can pay, and these folks don’t care about the consequences.

Even with this new gun tracking program, we have to keep in mind that all of this is nothing but a bandage. Everybody wants a panacea, but there is no panacea. We ask, “What are we to do about these black kids? What are we to do about these brown kids? What are we to do about these Asian kids? What are we to do about these white kids?” What it all comes down to, as far as I am concerned, is what to do about American society and how to do it in a way that our society was designed for it to occur.

My Inglewood community is black and brown. One of these days, we are really going to have to sit down as a community and decide what we want for our children. We can have all the histrionics, all the arguing, all the cursing, all the verbal infighting, then out of that--irrespective of our different opinions--we will have to come back to what we want for our kids in the society. I know that our young people can succeed as well as any if they have the proper foundation.