The Year of the Gun : The region is battered by an alarming increase in gun-related deaths

The “celebratory” New Year’s Eve gunfire that marked the end of another bloody year in the region provided yet another sobering reminder of how pervasive guns have become here and across the nation. That’s why, as today’s special Opinion section reminds us, 1991 should be remembered as much as anything else as “The Year of the Gun.”

In 1991, gun violence was more frequent and indiscriminate than ever, striking victims at such unlikely places as birthday parties, football games and even a school bus. Although there have been some notable exceptions, the community seems to have become inured to the escalating mayhem.

Meanwhile, law enforcement is outmanned and outgunned by a new breed of thugs whose tools of the trade increasingly include automatic weapons.

Crime data from the FBI confirms that there has been a significant increase in gun-related deaths in Southern California. In Los Angeles County, for example, firearms were used in 58% of the homicides committed in 1985; by 1990 that number had jumped to 74%. The percentage of gun use in Orange County murders rose from 52% to 66% over that period.

The National Rifle Assn. maintains that tougher gun control laws do nothing to deter gun crime. Admittedly, gun crime has increased despite California’s 15-day waiting period for firearm purchases and despite other tough laws. But the patchwork of state and federal gun regulations allows--and to some extent encourages--people to transport guns from areas where they are easily available to places where firearms are regulated. Of the 26 states that have laws restricting the sale or use of firearms, 11 mandate a waiting period between purchase and delivery, 10 require a state permit to purchase a gun and two impose a telephone background check.

Law enforcement officials are struggling against an overwhelming tide of guns. Programs to buy back guns and to make guns as well as drugs the target of police sweeps are well-intentioned and are well worth trying.

Priorities must be reordered. That means a tough, uniform federal law will be required to slow the movement of handguns and keep them away from people who should not have them--especially felons, the mentally ill and, of course, children. That also means that 1992 should be the year that all Americans take a good, hard look at the future of a country that permits the Second Amendment of the Constitution to become an endorsement for a right of people to kill each other.