Arms Sales

Facing down a fierce opposition attack and defectors from his own party, British Prime Minister John Major put his government on the line Monday in an incendiary parliamentary vote over illegal arms sales to Iraq--and won by a hair. Major's Conservatives won 320-319 in a vote that undercuts the impact of a report faulting government officials for their handling of the weapons sales in the years before the Persian Gulf War.

Canada is jettisoning its decades-old image as an international conciliator and defender of human rights, reshaping its foreign policy to try to rake in more trade--including a slice of the burgeoning world arms market.

Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski, the trade chief for East Germany during the 1980s, was convicted of illegally importing Western weapons while in office and sentenced to a year probation. He immediately appealed the decision, arguing that Germany has no right to try him for his actions as an agent of what was then a separate nation. The case was one of the highest-profile trials of an East German official. Schalck faces four more indictments, including charges of tax evasion and fraud.

West Hollywood made front-page headlines earlier this year as the first city in California to ban the sale of Saturday night specials. Cities from Los Angeles to Compton quickly jumped on the bandwagon, pledging to enact their own laws against the cheap pistols. But West Hollywood officials say they soon discovered that enforcing its milestone legislation was no easy task because of potential loopholes that let guns with minor cosmetic changes slip through the cracks.

West Hollywood officials issued a list Thursday of more than 40 handguns that cannot be sold in the city's pawnshops and gun stores. Earlier this year, the West Hollywood City Council passed the first ordinance by a California city banning the sale of so-called "Saturday night specials"--the name given to some handguns that are small, inexpensive and often made from inferior materials.

A 20-year-old UC Irvine student accused of running a sophisticated ring that offered to sell more than two dozen machine guns, shotguns and illegally enhanced automatic rifles to street gangs was denied bail Thursday, a few hours after surrendering to federal authorities. Trung "Alex" Minh Dao, a geography major, was ordered to remain in custody pending a preliminary hearing scheduled for next month.

Nearly every night after the sun goes down, Ineda Henderson hears gun shots piercing the air in her Compton neighborhood. The retired food server said she is too terrified to walk the streets, and virtually never leaves her house after dark. "People with guns, they think that gives them some extra power," Henderson said Thursday as she shopped at a discount store on Rosecrans and Central Avenues. "There is just too much shooting. If ain't nobody got no guns, then can't nobody kill nobody.

West Hollywood city officials postponed the final vote to ban the sale of Saturday night special handguns, asking for a delay to ensure that the city measure will not conflict with state law. If officials pass the ban as expected later this month, West Hollywood will be the first city in the nation to prohibit sales of the cheaply made, low-caliber pistols. The measure will come back to the council on Jan. 16 and could become law as early as February, officials said.

Handguns make up only half of the new gun sales in the United States but are involved in nearly 90% of shootings that result in emergency room visits, according to a new three-city survey. The conclusion is part of a New England Journal of Medicine study that looked at gunshot wounds in Memphis, Tenn., Galveston, Texas, and Seattle between November 1992 and May 1994. A team led by Dr.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation's largest retailer, has stunned the music industry by banning an upcoming album by Grammy winner Sheryl Crow from its stores because of a song lyric suggesting that the retailer sells guns to children. Wal-Mart's decision, which record industry executives estimate could cost Crow a staggering 400,000 album sales, comes two weeks before the album, "Sheryl Crow," is to be released by A&M Records on Sept. 24.