Going after the real killers

FROM SACRAMENTO — Guns don't kill people, it's true. Bullets do.

"Without ammo, a handgun is only good for pistol-whipping someone," notes Assemblyman Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles). "Ammo is the lifeblood of a handgun."

On Sept. 11, the last day of this year's regular legislative session, De Leon narrowly won final passage of a bill to regulate sales of handgun ammunition.

The assemblyman has a long list of gang shooting horror stories from his district, which stretches from Hollywood to the Alhambra city line and includes Echo Park, Lincoln Heights and part of East Los Angeles.

Stray bullets from gang crossfire have killed a 9-year-old girl playing in the kitchen, a 14-year-old girl as she sat in the back seat of her family's SUV and a 4-year-old boy while walking with his sister outside their home. Plus there has been a barrel-load of gangbanger assassinations.

De Leon's bill, AB 962, would make it illegal to knowingly sell handgun ammunition to criminals. Strangely, De Leon says, it's against the law for criminals to possess ammo but not for someone to sell it to them knowing they are criminals. The bill also would prohibit hard-core gang members -- those under court injunction restrictions -- from possessing handgun bullets.

And -- the more controversial part -- it would require:

* Ammunition dealers to keep bullets out of easy reach of potential shoplifters, similar to cigarettes.

* Dealers to check a purchaser's identification, take a thumbprint and make the records available to local law enforcement. There'd be no waiting period before delivery of the ammo, as there is with firearms.

* Handgun owners to buy their bullets face-to-face from a licensed dealer. They could order through the Internet or by mail, but they'd have to pick up the ammo at a store, just as they now must when buying a gun.

Opponents -- Republican legislators and the gun lobby -- complained about inconveniencing law-abiding citizens.

"I'd rather be inconvenienced and alive than have criminals convenienced and be dead," says Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, one of many law enforcement officials who support De Leon's bill.

"The problem is the criminals' easy access to ammunition because of the overemphasis on not inconveniencing law-abiding citizens," the sheriff adds. "The price we all pay is random violence. A safer society will also be a somewhat more inconvenienced society. . . . Those of us in the crime-fighting business need more solutions to control criminal violence."