Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 27, 1992 TAG: 9201270202
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK and SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
CONTROL REQUIRES COMMUNITY EFFORT
GUN CONTROL laws alone can't solve all the problems, particularly with a\ legislature that is reluctant to reform the laws. So some localities are\ tackling gun control as a broad social issue.
Incidents involving guns in the hands of teen-agers are hitting some Virginia localities like the kick of a shotgun, forcing cities and school systems to seek new ideas in dealing with juvenile crime.
Proposals include beefed-up curfew laws, mandatory expulsions for students who bring guns to school, ordinances making it illegal for teens to possess guns and tougher state gun legislation.
Soon, the General Assembly will consider a statewide referendum on a three-day waiting period for handgun purchasers. City governments in Norfolk and Richmond are pressing for legislation to limit handgun buyers to one purchase per month statewide.
But with the traditional reluctance of Virginia legislators to institute sweeping reforms in the state's gun law, some areas are treating the issue locally as a social problem.
Just weeks after a 15-year-old Danville student was seriously wounded by a gunshot on a school parking lot, the Southside city is getting tough.
Tuesday, students will meet to plan a "crime stoppers" program. On Feb. 6, the Danville School Board will vote on mandatory expulsion for students caught with guns at school. The mandatory expulsion policy and a youth "police" cadre are part of a community attack on juvenile crime. Danville community leaders were working on a plan to combat juvenile crime when a 15-year-old ninth-grader was wounded by his own .25-caliber pistol as it was held by a 13-year-old friend.
The shooting appeared to be accidental, but it accelerated the planning, said Lyle Evans, administrative assistant to Danville School Superintendent Eric J. Smith.
Evans, a former classroom teacher, said schools and communities have to take the position that guns in school cannot be tolerated.
At the center of the city's effort is a Task Force on Juvenile Crime. `We're trying to get everything in place as rapidly as possible," Evans said.
So are other cities, such as Martinsville.
Responding to an incident in which a teen-ager flashed a gun at a skating rink, the city is taking advantage of a new law that gives jurisdictions the option of passing a local ordinance making it illegal for juveniles to possess guns.
Martinsville Commonwealth's Attorney J. Randolph Smith credited Junius Warren, a judge in the city's Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, with informing city officials of the option.
Smith called it a "bizarre quirk" in the law that makes it illegal for juveniles to purchase guns - or for adults to purchase guns for them - but not illegal for juveniles to own guns.
City Council passed an ordinance last November that makes it a crime punishable by a fine of up to $100 for anyone under 18 to possess a gun.
Martinsville's ordinance went into effect Dec. 6, too recently to judge its effectiveness.
"It's not much a punishment statute, but I think the real teeth in it is that it makes it illegal and it gives police a way to get guns out of juveniles' hands and off the street," Warren said.
Although Martinsville's experience is reflective of problems in larger cities, Roanoke officials have not proposed such an ordinance.
Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell said that although such an ordinance might help police, new laws alone will never solve the problem.
"Legislating firearms is not going to solve the problem," Caldwell said. "You don't legislate something that is in demand out of existence."
Caldwell cited the case of a 19-year-old drug dealer who regularly arranged for adults to buy him guns as an example of the ways criminals find loopholes in the law.