CITIES MUST PUT THE CLAMPS ON AMMO SALES; STRONGER REGISTRATION STATUTES WOULD CREATE `ENVIRONMENT OF RESPONSIBILITY'.

Byline: Ann Reiss Lane

SICK of the deaths and mayhem on the streets of our cities? If you're unsure about gun control, what about controlling bullets?

Two years ago, Pasadena bravely stepped forward to become the first city in California to legislate in the area of ammunition sales. Despite the heated, hostile and fear-filled atmosphere of the City Council meeting, created by combative members of the pro-gun lobby, council members voted 5-2 to require ammunition purchasers to provide proof of age and to require the seller to complete a form recording the brand, type and amount of ammunition purchased.

Would crime statistics drop dramatically? Would the police record higher percentages of crimes solved? That was never the anticipated outcome, for simple ordinances do not ``solve'' any problem.

What the Pasadena ordinance did was create an ``environment of responsibility'' by calling attention to the need to ban ammunition sales to minors and to make gun-store salespeople more thoughtful about their customers, particularly those 18 and under who are prohibited from owning a firearm.

Other cities adopted similar ordinances, including Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and Santa Monica. But Pasadena is now considering repealing the ordinance because the pro-gun lobby, still smarting from defeat two years ago, says it hasn't been effective.

The ammo-purchase records were checked by a volunteer rather than a police officer, which tells us how little commitment the Pasadena Police Department had to making the ordinance work effectively.

Cities should, instead, strengthen their ammunition registration ordinances. Experts in the Los Angeles Police Department's Gun Unit feel the ordinance would be greatly strengthened if buyers were required to be fingerprinted.

Los Angeles Councilman Mike Feuer wants ammunition buyers to obtain a permit from the Police Commission by submitting a fingerprint and passing a background check, which would require a waiting period.

Last year a group of doctors from Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center called a news conference to express their horror at the tragedies that were unfolding every day in their emergency rooms, as young children with multiple gunshot wounds were being delivered by paramedics.

They pleaded for some action to reduce gun violence and felt that controlling ammunition would make a major contribution. Every single day in Los Angeles County there are at least four gun-involved homicides, suicides or unintentional shootings. Last year, 236 youths died in the county. Two of them were 2-year-olds.

There are now restrictions on particular kinds of ammunition such as armor-piercing bullets. Restrictions on the size of the ammunition clips (10 rounds) were included in the 1994 crime bill.

Of course, none of the new laws is retroactive, so gun sellers continue to sell larger clips, as well as now-banned assault weapons, if they were in stock before passage of the ban. Thus are good laws thwarted.

Several federal and state proposals to tax ammunition at high rates have been introduced and failed. A bill to put ``taggants'' (microscopic plastic or metal markers) in explosives was defeated by Congress with the help of the NRA. Such elements, if added to ammunition, could be linked to the point of purchase and perhaps to the purchaser.

Local ordinances could be even more effective if enhanced by a national policy restricting mail-order ammo sales. Such sales are neither prohibited nor regulated. All federal controls on ammunition were repealed in 1986 at the behest of the gun lobby.

It is madness that anyone of any age who can read the catalog can make a purchase of ammunition through the mail.

Many argue that if high taxes and other draconian measures are enacted, shooters would reload ammunition in spent shells. Devices are obtainable to make reloading possible. Perhaps some shooters would use reloads, but not every person who commits suicide, has an accident or who shoots a member of the family in a drug- or alcohol-induced rage or in a fit of jealousy is going to keep reloading equipment and supplies around the house.

Using Feuer's ideas, angry or suicidal people would have a waiting period to cool off.

Most juvenile criminals would find it harder to get ammunition if registration, fingerprinting and waiting periods were in place. Impulsive criminal activity could be reduced. That is the goal if all the proposals being considered, with the hope that many cities across California will ultimately join in the effort.

Guns may not kill people, but bullets surely do. If our laws are not strong enough to accomplish the task, we should not cut and run. Strengthen the law and strengthen the enforcement. We must find new ways to reduce the tragic toll from this epidemic of gun violence.