CITY ATTORNEY UNHOLSTERS SPECIAL GUN-SHOP UNIT.

Byline: Jason Kandel Staff Writer

Hoping to reduce crime and bloodshed involving guns, the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office has created a three-member task force to prosecute weapons violations.

Funded by a $360,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, the deputy city attorneys are prosecuting firearms dealers accused of keeping sloppy records and illegally selling the cheap handguns known as Saturday night specials.

``If the dealers follow the rules, we're more likely to be able to track the history of that gun and bring someone to justice,'' said Deputy City Attorney Peter Shutan, a 15-year gang prosecutor who was tapped to head the gun unit.

``If dealers are in the business of selling firearms, it is their obligation to follow the rules.''

Authorities are especially concerned about gun violations because of a sharp increase in the number of gun-related homicides in the San Fernando Valley - 66 so far this year, compared with 59 during the same period in 2001.

And in 1999, 76 percent of the homicides committed in the city of Los Angeles involved a gun, authorities said. That number has grown to more than 80 percent today.

``My goal is to help keep neighborhoods safe,'' City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said in an interview. ``Our specific mission is to provide more resources on the enforcement side to back up our LAPD, to allow us to keep more illegal guns off the street.''

Hampered by staffing shortages, the City Attorney's Office and Los Angeles Police Department had fallen behind in their annual gun-shop inspections. The unit will accelerate that process and will help authorities keep a closer eye on firearms vendors, Delgadillo said.

A 1999 report by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms found that authorized gun dealers in California were the source of 76 percent of all traceable guns recovered in Los Angeles during criminal investigations. More than 70 percent were handguns.

The unit is working hand in hand with the LAPD gun unit, inspecting 34 gun shops in Los Angeles, more than half of which are in the Valley.

It's a tedious, time-consuming process, as officers wade through an eight-page checklist and physically look over each gun.

One shop can take nearly two days to check.

``It's hard to keep up,'' said LAPD Officer Bill Flannery, who coordinates the LAPD gun unit.

Some dealers keep illegible records. Others claim they weren't informed of new laws.

Gun-rights advocates decry the priorities of the new gun unit, saying the grant money the city attorney is using for the unit could be better spent on helping combat violent gun crimes.

``Instead of focusing on gang members, who are the ones misusing the firearms, they're going after, for the most part, legitimate gun dealers, who simply haven't been made aware of changes in the local city law,'' said Chuck Michel, a spokesman for the California Rifle and Pistol Association.

``Any dealer who violates the law should be disciplined, but there has to be fairness in it.''

Local authorities counter that they routinely notify dealers of new laws, and that they're working to keep streets safe. They say the new unit is a tool to prevent crime and will streamline the crime-fighting process.

``We're very enthused at having our own personal prosecutor to help file cases to get people off the streets,'' said LAPD Lt. Steven Nielsen, who supervises the Police Department's gun unit.

``It's nice to have somebody dealing with guns exclusively.''

Since the unit has begun operating over the past few months, deputy city attorneys have seen nearly a dozen firearms cases come across their desks. The cases range from gang members caught possessing a gun to dealers selling guns not approved by the state Department of Justice.

Penalties for most of the cases are a $1,000 fine and six months in jail.

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SOURCE: LAPD