Use Law to Forces Changes . . .

In Los Angeles, nearly 100 people under the age of 19 were killed last year as a result of handguns. Twelve of the victims were under the age of 15. These tragedies could be prevented if the gun industry took a few steps to make its products safer.

Thousands of guns are winding up in the hands of criminals who are aided in these acquisitions by the gun industry’s practice of supplying an illegal underground market for guns by disavowing all responsibility for their product--behavior like not limiting the number of weapons that can be bought at one time, supplying guns to gun shows and not even requiring a retailer to sell from a store front.

The gun industry has opposed any effort to curb these practices, and leadership in Washington has failed to enact the necessary laws. Local governments, burdened by the toll of gun violence, are now forced to resolve this problem in court.

Together with San Francisco City Atty. Louise Renne, I co-chaired a task force to develop a statewide approach to gun violence. We filed lawsuits against the gun industry that allege that the gun industry engages in unfair, illegal or deceptive business practices. This approach was used effectively against tobacco companies and we believe it will be an effective tool against the gun industry, too. Our lawsuits allege that the gun industry’s practices constitute a public nuisance by degrading the health and safety of residents in our communities.

A terrifying problem caused by gun industry practices is the ease with which firearms can be obtained or used by kids who are legally prohibited from possessing them. In 1997, more than 25% of all homicides and about 30% of all hospitalizations for nonfatal firearms injuries in Los Angeles involved people 19 years of age or younger.

It is time for the gun industry to change its practices and use existing technology to produce weapons that cannot be operated by children or anyone other than the lawful purchasers. In both Littleton and Conyers, simple devices in the guns that would have limited their use to the owner could have helped prevent both tragedies. There are about 30 patents for this technology, including guns that operate only based on the purchaser’s fingerprints.

Another major problem is how the gun industry in effect supplies an illegal underground market by flooding areas with more handguns than the legitimate market can absorb and then fails to place any controls on their distributors or dealers--which include disreputable guns shops, pawnshops, gun shows and telemarketers--to prevent their products from falling into the hands of the wrong people.

This leads to people who have no legal right to own a gun being able to obtain them through illegal purchases or purchases by straw buyers.

Gun purchases by these straw buyers are a major problem in Southern California, where more than 80% of the firearms confiscated by law enforcement were in the possession of someone other than the original buyer. Another recent study showed that over a nine-month period, there were 5,743 multiple sales in Los Angeles involving the purchase of more than 13,000 handguns. A total of 13,176 crimes were committed with firearms last year in Los Angeles, and more than 6,000 of the weapons were seized by police.

Most people believe that guns used by criminals are stolen. That is not the case. Studies show that only about 10%of guns used by criminals are stolen. Instead, an estimated 25% to 30% of guns used by criminals were obtained from the country’s flourishing underground gun market.

Handgun manufacturers employ a two-tier distribution system in which the first sale is to a wholesale distributor who in turn sells to retail outlets. Through this structure, gun manufacturers deny any responsibility for what occurs at the retail level. All too often, retailers sell handguns to individuals--frequently in multiple sales--under circumstances where the retailer knew or should have known that that handgun would be used to commit a crime.

Gun manufacturers must immediately take steps to control what happens once their products leave the factory--measures that will prevent guns from ending up in the hands of criminals and children.