Gun Dealers

To cut gun violence, you don't need new laws, you just need to enforce existing laws: So goes the gun lobby's mantra, repeated each time new limits on guns are proposed, no matter how modest or appropriate. In fact, stopping the bloodshed in high school libraries and suburban office buildings will take both vigorous enforcement of existing laws and new measures to keep guns out of the wrong hands.

With tougher gun control proposals languishing in Congress, President Clinton invoked his executive powers Friday to crack down on the small percentage of gun dealers who are the source of a majority of weapons used in crimes. Clinton ordered federal agents to target 1,020 gun dealers in what he termed the "most aggressive effort ever undertaken to ensure responsible behavior by gun dealers." The dealers make up only 1.2% of the nation's federal licensed gun dealers but accounted for 57.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said Tuesday that he is banning all gun giveaways in his department and will hand out $500 in cash to the grand prize winner in next month's Lennox station raffle, instead of the 9-millimeter handgun promised when the fund-raiser tickets were sold.

Vice President Al Gore said Tuesday that new penalties may be needed against the small percentage of renegade gun dealers who are the source of the overwhelming majority of guns used in violent crimes. Gore issued his warning during and after a two-hour meeting on school safety with students from three high schools here. The vice president cited a study released Monday by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.

It was perfectly legal for Jay Rivas Hernandez to buy a gun, and that's exactly what he did. Hernandez, 29, believed the Cali drug cartel and Mexican Mafia were after him, and that a camera was attached to his face so his tormentors could track his movements. He thought he had been raped in his sleep. He believed his mind had been erased, and that "they" were sending him messages from the president on a computer screen. He called the FBI, CIA and White House seeking help.

Re "Gun Show Still a Draw for Firearms Fans," Sept. 12. In this article, Dick Corrente is quoted as saying, "People think we're giving permits to drunks and crazy guys." Well, the fact is that the gun dealers at these traveling shows don't know that they're not selling to drunks and crazy guys. I'm tired of worrying about my daughter growing up in a world in which guns are too easily acquired by too many people. I have put my legislators on notice that I will never again vote for anyone who is not in favor of strict--if not Draconian--gun controls.

Federal prosecutors have launched what they called the nation's first concerted attack on suburban gun dealers who arm city gangs, announcing charges Wednesday against 13 buyers and sellers. Owners and employees of five suburban gun shops and two of the shops themselves were accused of supplying guns to "straw purchasers" with clean police records who were standing in for the actual buyers.

The AR-15 assault rifle taken from the alleged gunman in the shooting at the North Valley Jewish Community Center was assembled piecemeal, with the central shooting portion coming from Bushmaster Firearms in Maine. Dick Dyke, president of Bushmaster, said the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms called his company early Tuesday morning to trace the weapon from his manufacturing plant in Windham, Maine, to find out how it wound up in the hands of Buford O.

A Fountain Valley gun dealer was sentenced this week to eight months for evading more than $450,000 in taxes on his gun sales. Don Mitchell, 66, who owned and operated Mitchell Arms in Santa Ana, will spend four months in prison and four months in home detention, Assistant U.S. Atty. David Lavine said. His sentence begins Aug. 30. Mitchell was ordered to pay the back taxes to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.