8 Gun Makers Agree to Provide Trigger Locks

Most of the nation’s handgun manufacturers agreed Thursday to provide child safety locks with their firearms as part of a pact with the Clinton administration, but the deal does not include three Southern California firms that are among the largest producers of cheap handguns known as Saturday night specials.

As President Clinton stood in the Rose Garden with leaders of eight weapon makers celebrating an agreement some called historic, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) was firing off missives to the three firms, which are among the 10 largest handgun producers in the country.

Representatives of the three companies--Lorcin Engineering of Mira Loma, Bryco Arms of Costa Mesa and Phoenix Arms of Ontario--did not return calls for comment Thursday. A fourth, Davis Industries of Mira Loma, signed on to the Clinton deal, according to Richard Feldman, executive director of the American Shooting Sports Council, which helped broker the agreement.

The administration expects the deal to ensure that 80% of American-made handguns are sold with trigger locks. But Boxer warned that hundreds of thousands of weapons would be sold without such locks yearly as long as the California firms are not part of it.

“Each year, nearly 40,000 Americans are killed by firearms, including more than 500 children killed accidentally by gunshots. Who knows how many of these senseless tragedies could be avoided if all handguns in America came equipped with a simple child safety lock?” Boxer wrote.

Feldman said he expected Lorcin to ultimately comply and that Phoenix was “thinking about it.” Bryco is not a member of the council and was not contacted by it, he said.

The three companies, along with Davis, produce about 80% of the nation’s small-caliber handguns. A recent Times study showed that between January 1991 and May 1994, 20% of handguns used in murder, robbery, assault or drug crimes in the nation were traced to one of those companies.

Gun control experts said that in the past, Southern California’s well-established handgun industry--known as the “Ring of Fire”--has been hesitant to take part in industry-wide negotiations.

Bob Walker, spokesman for Handgun Control in Washington, said, “There is some concern among the Smith & Wessons of the world that they have to maintain the image of the industry if nothing else. But the Saturday night special manufacturers in California are sort of on the fringe, and if they aren’t afraid of being put out of business, they are going to go on doing what they have been doing.”

At the Rose Garden ceremony, Clinton thanked executives from the eight big gun makers for their example and their leadership. In attendance were representatives of Smith & Wesson, Glock, Beretta, Taurus, H&R;, Heckler & Koch, Mossberg & Sons and SigArms.

They have agreed to supply safety lock devices with handguns by the end of next year, a move that Clinton predicted “will save many young lives.”

Clinton issued a broad appeal for child safety lock requirements for all handguns in his State of the Union address in February, and has pressed the point several times since. In March, he directed that such locks be issued to all federal law enforcement officials. But given a history of touchy relations with the firearms industry, the White House was especially pleased to announce the growing voluntary compliance with the president’s appeal.

“This administration and the gun industry from time to time have stood on different sides of various [gun control] issues . . . and there may be other disagreements in the future,” Clinton said. “But today we stand together and stand with the law enforcement community to do what we all know is right for our children.”

According to a study by the Justice Department, more than a third of the nation’s 22 million privately owned handguns remain loaded and unlocked. Such weapons cause 1,500 injuries to children every year that require trips to the emergency room. In 1994, almost 200 children died in such accidents.

Even before the White House ceremony, at least two manufacturers had announced plans to begin installing safety locks--Sturm, Ruger & Co. and Smith & Wesson. The August decision by Smith & Wesson prompted the White House to push other major manufacturers to join in the effort.

The White House quietly orchestrated what Clinton called a “breakthrough agreement” by working closely with the American Shooting Sports Council, which represents gun manufacturers, retailers and importers around the country. It is the council that is dealing with the California manufacturers that belong to the group.

The absence of any California gun manufacturers at the White House ceremony went unremarked as the administration struck an emphatically upbeat note. But it was blasted by Boxer, who has made gun control a centerpiece of her legislative agenda. She has sponsored a bill that would apply to domestic firearms the same quality and safety standards required of imports.

“Toy guns have safety and quality standards,” Boxer said. “Tickle Me Elmos have safety and quality standards. But American-made handguns have zero. Zero. I don’t believe the American people get that.”

After the 1968 assassination of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles, Congress imposed standards on imported handguns, then the main source of such firearms in the United States. The industry that subsequently bloomed domestically has remained largely unregulated.

A state bill that would have imposed such standards on Saturday night specials produced in California was vetoed last month by Gov. Pete Wilson, who said the standards would make such guns unaffordable.

Gun control advocates have pressed forward with attempts to regulate the industry, and the Senate was poised to approve a child safety lock requirement sometime this session. Thursday’s voluntary pact was in no small part a weapons industry strategy to avoid at least one government regulation, observers said.

Still, some gun control proponents say that legislation will still be needed if all handguns are to be sold with trigger locks.

“We will continue to push Congress to take a look at this issue,” said Walker of the Handgun Control group.

Times staff writer Jodi Wilgoren contributed to this story.

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Safer Guns

An agreement with gun manufacturers ensures that most handguns sold in the United States will be equipped with child safety locks. The lock fits over the trigger guard to prevent the gun from discharging.