The Importance of Effective Police : Gun sales soar as a sense of security wanes

One of the most haunting images of the riots was that of merchants in many parts of Los Angeles brandishing firearms, ready to defend their property against roving bands of looters and arsonists.

Those merchants armed themselves because they believed--often with good cause--that the police could not defend them.

Now, thousands of other people across the state have come to share that perception and, according to the state Department of Justice, are arming themselves at a record pace. In the eight days after the riots, about 5,500 more guns were sold in California than in the same period last year.

That kind of response to primal fear stemming from crime and urban unrest fits a familiar pattern in this country. In the wake of urban riots across the United States in the 1960s, gun sales skyrocketed. Manufacturers rushed to fill the supply. Now there are an estimated 200 million firearms in the possession of private citizens--two times more guns than in 1970 and four times the number in 1950.

But are we any safer?

Clearly, we are not.

The sad fact is that there are now twice as many gun deaths as there were in 1967. And according to a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, for every killing done for legitimate self-protection, there were 43 suicides, criminal homicides or accidental deaths involving a gun kept in the home.

Although many people use guns safely for legal, time-honored pursuits such as hunting or collecting, there are countless others who misuse firearms in the most destructive ways. They include both violent criminals and ordinarily peaceful adults and children who in a moment of carelessness or uncontrolled passion turn guns on others or themselves.

The public must be reassured that the breakdown in police protection that occurred in the early days of the rioting won’t happen again. One step toward achieving this is the appointment of former FBI Director William H. Webster to head an investigation into what led to the delayed police response. Another will be arrival of the highly respected Willie L. Williams as chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. A third step would be passage of Charter Amendment F, the police-reform package that will be put before the voters on the June 2 ballot.

Los Angeles has suffered through a crisis that has left more than 50 people dead and caused more than $700 million in property damage. Confidence will not be restored overnight. But it certainly can never be restored by building arsenals in the basements and closets of the homes of Los Angeles.