A Welcome Role Reversal: Man Kills Gun

My heart does a little dance every time I see a bunch of real guns that shoot real bullets turned into a gob of goo at a bonfire.

Especially when those guns were used to commit crimes against the rest of us. And especially when the folks with the torch are a bunch of cops.

Now here’s a rare chance for you to get a front row seat to watch someone fight back against the gun makers. The Los Angeles Police Department on Thursday is going to melt down 2,200 handguns and rifles confiscated from criminals. It all takes place at 9:30 a.m. at the Tamco Steel facility at 12459 Arrow Highway in Rancho Cucamonga.

Gun control advocates invited by the police to attend have billed it as a “gun meltdown rally.” Anyone from Orange County can go.

The Los Angeles Police Department will display the weapons at the rally before turning them over to Tamco. The company will then melt them down in a furnace and turn them into recycled steel bars. Though Tamco might have limited room, rally organizers say the company will even hand out goggles and hard hats to a limited number to watch the actual melting.

These guns will wind up being put to much better use than their original purpose. The steel bars will be used for reinforcement during construction of the Alameda Corridor Project, the light rail system that runs through the heart of Los Angeles.

The rally organizer is Kidz Voice-LA, a group of students working to keep guns out of the hands of young people. Among the speakers will be Orange County’s own Mary Leigh Blek, who is national president of the Million Moms March, which has become one of the country’s leading gun control lobbying groups. Also speaking will be Los Angeles Police Deputy Chief Martin Pomeroy.

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Kidz Voice was founded by Los Angeles twins Niko and Theo Milonopoulos, now 13, who wanted to do something after the Ennis Cosby murder off the San Diego Freeway two years ago, which occurred near their school. Their mother, Constantina Milonopoulos, its executive director, says it’s exciting to see a negative turned into a positive.

“This will be our first meltdown, so we don’t know really what to expect,” she said. “But it should be quite an experience to see all those weapons destroyed.”

In 1995, the California Police Chiefs Assn. put out a position paper calling for mandatory destruction of weapons confiscated in crimes. Its language:

“Until there are sufficient safeguards to reduce the easy availability and misuse of firearms, we propose that any firearms that come into the possession of a law enforcement agency be destroyed in such a fashion as to render them permanently unusable as firearms.”

A meltdown ought to do it.

California has been taking a leading role in gun control laws. But police officials say it’s still far too easy for gang members and drug dealers to get their hands on cheap weapons. Every one melted down is one less with a chance to fall into the wrong hands.

Most police departments in Orange County also destroy weapons they confiscate. Years ago, some police have told me, they used to haul them out to sea and dump them hundreds of feet deep on the ocean floor. But if the fish didn’t complain, the environmentalists did. So now the guns are usually destroyed one of two ways. Santa Ana Police Department spokesman Sgt. Raul Luna says its confiscated weapons are turned over to a private company to be ground into particles then turned into recycled products. The guns are donated in exchange for having the work done. At the Anaheim Police Department, says Sgt. Rick Martinez, the weapons are melted down by a private company.

The Los Angeles Police Department held a similar media event a few weeks ago when a woman donated 5,200 weapons her husband had ordered for his gun store before he died.

“Many of the weapons were illegal in California, but she could have sold them in other states and made quite a profit,” said Lt. Horace Frank, an LAPD spokesman. “But she thought the best thing to do was to give them to us.”

The police in Orange County don’t make a major public production out of destroying guns. Maybe they should. It can help publicize how easy it is for these guns to get into criminals’ hands.

Said Blek of the Million Moms March:

“Until we have decent gun licensing and registration in this country, we need to destroy every weapon the police confiscate.”

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Jerry Hicks’ column appears Monday and Thursday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling (714) 966-7789 or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com.