Gun Deaths in Elderly, Asian Communities Up, Study Finds

Although gun deaths in Los Angeles County were down nearly 10% in 1999 over the previous year, such deaths for senior citizens and Asian Americans increased, a survey by a gun control group disclosed Thursday.

Ann Reiss Lane, head of the Los Angeles-based Women Against Gun Violence, was not especially buoyed by the results from her group’s annual survey because Los Angeles police figures for 2000 show that the homicide rate in the city--mainly as a result of guns--is up about 24%.

“Overall, the numbers may be down,” said Lane, a former Los Angeles fire commissioner, “but one death is one too many.”

According to the survey, 981 people in the county lost their lives to guns last year, with those 18 or younger representing nearly 15% of all gun-related deaths.

It also showed that gun deaths went down in nearly every age category, except for people 65 or older. Gun deaths involving seniors, including suicides, went up 14.6% over 1998. Suicides involving guns alone went up from 81 in 1998 to 91 in 1999.

These statistics involving seniors did not surprise Dr. David Trader, medical director of geriatric psychiatry services at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, who said the elderly routinely are bothered by depression.

“Old age is met with loss,” Trader said, “loss of health, loss of spouse, loss of job, loss of income, loss of friends and loss of social support. They see guns as a finality. They may think to themselves, ‘This is a sure way out.’ ” Trader said.

He added that depression among the elderly isn’t always readily evident, noting that some seniors who successfully commit suicide frequently have seen physicians within days of their deaths.

“[Suicide] is not always out of the blue,” Trader said.

A 70-year-old La Mirada woman said she had no warning on Aug. 20, 1999, when her husband, Jack Albe, shot himself to death with a shotgun in their home.

Albe, a collector of guns who had to hide them whenever the couple’s grandchildren came to visit, kept a loaded shotgun under his bed, Virginia Albe recalled Thursday.

“I never thought he’d do anything like that,” she said. “When he retired [as a truck driver], he became a couch potato. He was an angry man. He disliked people.

“I heard him go into his room. I then heard the cocking of the [gun]. I know what that sounds like. I sat up and I was going into his room but I didn’t have time. I heard this tremendous blast. I instantly knew what he did.”

Although groups such as Women Against Gun Violence use stories like Albe’s to make their point against the easy availability of guns, their opponents see the issue differently.

“What is easy availability?” asked Ed Worley, an official with the National Rifle Assn. in Sacramento.

“California has the most stringent gun laws in the United States,” he said. “It has 675 gun laws. It is illegal for juveniles to be in possession of a gun. It’s illegal to sell a gun without going through a dealer. People die from everyday auto accidents. Do we outlaw guns? We can’t put the genie back into the bottle.”

Worley and other gun advocates said the focus should be on ending the portrayal of violence on television and movies and common sense education about guns.

“We teach sex education in the school, but we can’t teach firearm safety,” Worley said, adding sarcastically, “That’s a taboo.”

Among Asian Americans, the survey showed, gun deaths in the county increased nearly 60%, going from 42 gun deaths in 1998 to 67 last year.

Researchers had no definitive explanations for the increase, but some Asian American professionals suggested that recently arrived immigrants, including some from South Korea, have found it hard to adjust to life in the United States.

“Immigration can be very stressful for families to undergo,” said Bong Kwan Kim, executive director of the Multicultural Collaborative, a race-relations group formed after the riots in 1992. “When I was working in Koreatown, I heard stories about domestic violence and high levels of stress. It’s an unspoken thing in some Asian communities.”

Other survey findings include:

* A total of 421 Latinos lost their lives to guns, representing the largest percentage of deaths by race and ethnicity.

* African Americans represented 24.6% of all gun deaths in the county, dying at a higher rate than their percentage in the county population.

* Twenty-two children ages 14 and younger were killed by guns in 1999. Twenty of the deaths were homicides.

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Gun Deaths

A total of 981 Los Angeles County residents were killed by guns in 1999. Gun deaths declined from 1998 to 1999 among every age group except those 65 and older. By ethnic group, gun deaths declined among whites and Latinos but increased among Asians.

Gun Deaths by Race/Ethnicity

Latino: 42.9%

White: 25.3%

Black: 24.6%

Asian: 6.8%

Other: 0.4%

Source: Women Against Gun Violence 1999 Survey of Gun Deaths in Los Angeles County