A Wave of the Future

Tidal waves build slowly in remote places, the result of seismic events that send them rolling toward land, gathering size and strength, until they crash ashore with terrible force.

They overpower whatever stands in their way and leave an impact that can only be described as awesome.

I say this because I sense the creation of cultural waves in many places across the country. They are the impulses of public opinion merging into one giant force against the guns that threaten our lives and our society.

It is the kind of tidal wave that towers above all others, one that can sweep away tyrants and maniacs and free us from nightmares. A wave of public opinion, like a tsunami from the ocean, is an elemental force.

At last sated with the horror of children as victims of gun violence, society through its legislators has found the courage to face those who profit from despair.

Laws have been passed and suits filed that are intended to challenge the gunslinger mentality that for too long has characterized our country.

Gun shows, junk guns, assault weapons and gun manufacturers all face the wave that grows stronger as it moves forward, created by shattering events on our streets, in our homes and in our schools that have caused so many deaths and so much grief.

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How sad that it takes the blood of children to galvanize our will and fire our courage to make a stand against those who throw a constitutional amendment in our faces to justify that which everyone knows is wrong and tragic.

Nothing will ever compensate for the bodies of school students strewn like broken toys across our collective memory. The scenes burn themselves into our culture. But the result of their deaths at least creates the kinds of towering priorities that move us forward.

I take special pride in observing that much of the activity against firearms is occurring here. The latest is the vote by Los Angeles County’s Board of Supervisors to ban the sale of guns and ammunition on county property, a move aimed at driving gun shows from the county fairgrounds. Before that, the same board banned the sale of junk guns in unincorporated areas.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who led the assault against the sale of firearms on county property, called the shows cesspools of illegal activities that draw criminals and white supremacists.

“This is not a 2nd Amendment issue,” he said the other day. “This is a moral issue. The county should not profit from the sale of guns.”

Six months earlier, the city of Los Angeles moved to limit the sale of handguns to one a month per person in a law aimed at the trafficking of illegal weapons. Additionally, the city and county have sued the firearms industry in an effort to curtail gun violence.

City Councilman Mike Feuer, who authored the ordinance limiting gun sales, put it succinctly: “Public policy is about momentum,” he said. “We must seize this moment to create that momentum.”

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Many times in the past, I’ve berated our legislators for doing nothing to halt the proliferation of firearms. They should have. Los Angeles is rich and influential. Municipalities with money and power owe more to the people than governments without them.

But our representatives sat silent as the sound of gunfire rang like funeral bells throughout the county. Sadly, violence in minority districts was accepted as a way of life and little was done to lessen it.

Then, inevitably, the gunfire moved into America’s white suburbs and its small towns, and we began to understand that this wasn’t a racial problem and it wasn’t an ethnic problem. Gun violence was everybody’s baby.

Yaroslavsky deserves praise for leading the most populated county in the nation into direct confrontation with the gun profiteers. He is already feeling their wrath through letters, phone calls and e-mail. Much of it is anonymous and much of it contains racial and religious slurs.

“They are the ilk that gun shows attract,” Yaroslavsky said. “The public has a right to know that.”

I understand the assaults that come from standing against guns. The sizzling hatred of racism is unnerving. It emerges from the kind of cesspool Yaroslavsky was talking about and it hints darkly at reprisal.

He has reacted to it with courage and with what he calls “prudent caution,” meanwhile vowing to continue a fight against guns. “I’m not going to stop,” he says. “I’ve only begun.”

I see the tsunami building and I hear its mighty roar.

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Al Martinez’s column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. He can be reached on line at al.martinez@latimes.com.