Load and Lock

The man in the pinstripe suit, fingers bare, levels his gun and tries to shoot. Nothing happens.

“I do not have the ring on!” he yells. In a flash, he slips a silvery ring over his middle finger and grabs the gun. The weapon springs to life, firing six rounds in a blaze of noise and smoke.

For a moment, Daniel Hinerfeld could almost pass for the hero of a sci-fi comic strip. Then he carefully sets down the borrowed gun, pulls off his safety goggles and resumes his buttoned-down role as a council aide and chairman of the Los Angeles Handgun Task Force.

Created by the City Council last year, the group is prepared to recommend new restrictions on gun sales aimed at keeping weapons away from children and criminals. The 12-member panel is drafting standards for handguns that can be fired only by their authorized users--an ambitious effort that backers hope may usher in a new generation of gun safety.

To put their recommendations to the test, task force members trooped out to this LAPD firing range in the northeast Valley and squeezed off 300 rounds at a time with guns like the converted Smith & Wesson .357 magnum revolver Hinerfeld tested that won’t fire unless the user is wearing a magnetic ring. The group, which includes representatives of the Los Angeles Police Department, the city attorney’s office and gun control organizations, also tested several guns that require a key to operate and a 9-millimeter pistol featuring a grip release that must be pulled before the gun will shoot.

The goal, Hinerfeld said, is to devise a law that would eventually require all handguns sold in Los Angeles to be “personalized.” Guns that cannot recognize the person pulling the trigger as their rightful owner--perhaps by scanning fingerprints--would not fire.

Chuck Michel, a Los Angeles attorney who represents the National Rifle Assn., said the NRA would oppose any “one-size-fits-all” measure that mandates internal locks or personalization features.

“There are a myriad of issues concerning the practical application of some of this technology that can, in many cases, make firearms less safe rather than more safe,” Michel said. “It’s one more thing to do wrong when you’re standing there defending your life. You don’t want one more bell and whistle that can break.”

No fingerprint-recognition guns have reached the retail market, but the task force is studying other safety features that they hope will help prevent accidental shootings, teen suicides and the 548 homicides the city recorded last year. About 70% of the killings were committed with guns, LAPD Officer Jason Lee said.

Hinerfeld, an aide to Councilman Mike Feuer, said the task force will probably advocate a phased approach, perhaps first requiring that all handguns sold here be fitted with internal locks. California law already requires that guns be sold with child safety locks by 2002, but gun control advocates argue that trigger locks and other external devices can be easily removed and discarded.

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The next phase may require “smart guns” that include some type of safeguard that prevents anyone but the authorized user from firing them--such as a magnetic ring or a keypad code built into the gun. The ultimate goal: fully personalized weapons that actually recognize their user, Hinerfeld said.

At stake are thousands of guns sold by Los Angeles dealers each year. In 2000, about 11,600 handguns were sold, according to state Department of Justice records.

“There is no reason, with advancing technology, why a gun should be sold in Los Angeles that can be fired by someone other than the authorized user,” said Feuer, who plans to introduce his proposal in April. “Guns shouldn’t be in the hands of criminals or kids.”

Michel suggested that Feuer, a candidate for city attorney, is pushing hard on a series of gun control measures because he wants to draw attention to his campaign. Last week, the Police Commission approved a Feuer proposal that would ban the sale of so-called “pocket rockets”--compact handguns favored by criminals because they are easy to conceal.

Other firearms controls advocated by Feuer, including annual background checks for ammunition buyers and fingerprinting of gun buyers, also are under city consideration.

“Why are they all coming to a head now?” Michel asked. “Could it be because there’s an election in a month?”

Feuer denied that his push for tougher gun controls was a campaign gimmick, saying that he has long advocated such measures. Four years ago, he helped found a working group to create regional gun control policies and has since written much of the city’s gun-related legislation. Feuer first proposed background checks for ammunition buyers in 1997.

Los Angeles residents live under some of the nation’s toughest gun controls. In recent years, California has limited handgun purchases to one a month, mandated trigger locks and banned the sale of assault weapons and cheap guns known as Saturday night specials. The one-gun-per-month law originated in Los Angeles (another Feuer measure), and many other restrictions were adopted by the city before winning statewide approval.

The personalized gun proposal is likely to get a sympathetic hearing in the council’s Public Safety Committee. Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who chairs the committee, said she would strongly support the measure and expects the full council to back it as well.

“For all the various proposals that are out there, I can’t think of one that would be more effective to reduce the incidence of gun violence,” Miscikowski said. “We just really have to make sure guns don’t get into the hands of people who aren’t supposed to have them. It is something I would give the highest importance to.”