Path of a Bullet

When they searched the apartment where the suspected killers of Martine Perry fled after the drive-by shooting, police found a compact .380-caliber chrome Lorcin semiautomatic handgun in a bedroom closet. And there was a meaner-looking blue-steel AA Arms 9 mm assault pistol in the trunk of the older-model Buick allegedly used by the killers.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms traced the guns and found that Carlito Duran bought the Lorcin, a $90 Saturday night special, in Bellflower at the Powder Horn, 10124 E. Artesia Blvd., on May 8, 1995.

Duran, 23, who lived at the Freeman Avenue apartment where the gun was found, was taken to police headquarters for questioning after the shooting, but was released after detectives determined he had not been at the scene of the shooting.

Three other adults and a juvenile who were at Duran's apartment when police arrived have been charged with murder.

The ATF's trace on the 9 mm weapon was not absolutely conclusive, but it is probably one bought in Compton in 1991 at Boulevard Auto Parts, which sells only guns at 1316 N. Long Beach Blvd.

The ATF would not release the name of the buyer since the gun, which retails for $199, had apparently changed hands.

Only one in three traces successfully identify a retail dealer, according to the ATF.

Some guns are too old to trace, and problems with distributor records account for some failures.

Although it is yet to be determined which, if either, of the guns is the murder weapon, homicide Detective William MacLyman said the Lorcin is the likely choice.

Ballistics tests should provide conclusive evidence. Both guns were sent to the Los Angeles County sheriff's ballistics lab in late October for testing, but results are not yet available.

The fact that police have guns to test for ballistics makes the Martine Perry case fairly unusual.

“Most murder weapons are not recovered, or not recovered so quickly,” said MacLyman. “Most of the time, the killers dispose of the murder weapons.

They know they can be traced.”

A trace can sometimes tie a weapon to a crime, and a suspect to a weapon.

A successful ATF trace identifies the links in the chain throughout the country, from the manufacturer, to the dealer, then to the original buyer. A California statewide system, which local police agencies use for most of their gun traces, identifies buyers of handguns sold in the state.

It's no secret that the gun buyer is not always the gun user, and that people who want guns but can't buy them legally -- felons and juveniles, mostly -- can find ways to get them.

For one thing, there's an active black-market economy. Guns stolen from homes, businesses and parked cars -- an estimated 300,000 nationwide every year -- are a hot street commodity.

Some 3,000 weapons were stolen from retailers during the 1992 Southland riots, and many of those continue to be recovered on Los Angeles County streets, according to a report by Julius Wachtel, resident agent in charge of the ATF field office in Long Beach.

Police say a black-market buyer can pick up a good quality handgun at well below the regular retail price of $300 to $350.

How many guns are sold on the black market in Los Angeles County everyday remains an open question.

“It's impossible to say,” said ATF Special Agent John D'Angelo in Los Angeles.

But buying stolen guns is just one of several ways gang members and others manage to get possession of a Baretta 9 mm handgun, a Tech 9 semiautomatic or the popular AK-47 assault weapon.

The ATF traced a small percentage -- 1,764 -- of the guns recovered by police in Long Beach, South-Central Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Ana between Jan. 1 and Nov. 10, 1994, and found five other major sources for the so-called crime guns:

• Corrupt “kitchen-table” dealers who are licensed to sell at home. Some buy in large quantities from distributors, then resell “off the books,” or without the state-mandated paperwork.
• Dishonest commercial or storefront dealers who sell off the books or close their eyes to obvious “straw purchases.” A straw purchase, for example, is one in which a man and a woman walk into a gun store; he selects the firearm he wants, and she uses her identification and pays for it.
• Straw purchasers who buy for people who can't legally acquire firearms because of age requirements (21 to buy a handgun; 18 to buy a long gun), or criminal record, or who want to buy them anonymously. Gang members frequently have their girlfriends buy guns for them. In one case, two handguns used in a gang-related drive-by murder were purchased by a father for his underage sons.
• Interstate traffickers who bring guns from states with highly permissive gun laws -- such as Arizona, Nevada and many of the Southern states -- to California, where laws are tougher. In California, gun transfers must go through a dealer. Background checks and a 20-day waiting period are mandatory. (The wait will be cut to 10 days, starting April 1.)
• Unlicensed street dealers who buy from various sources for resale, often to gang members. Such dealers prefer to use straw purchasers to buy guns from commercial sources, including retail outlets in Arizona.

According to the ATF study, gang members in Inglewood used straw purchasers in Phoenix to buy nearly 1,000 firearms from retailers. Many of those guns were recovered in crimes in Los Angeles, including one used in the attempted murder of a Los Angeles police officer.

Given the circuitous exchange patterns for some guns, knowing the original
buyer may not help solve a crime.

“The person who purchases a gun in a gun store is not necessarily the person who used it, and more often is not,” said ATF Special Agent D'Angelo.

Nonetheless, a trace may pay off in other ways.

“A gun trace is often the first information we get in a gun trafficking scheme,” D'Angelo said.

While police agencies generally attempt to trace only the guns involved in crimes, a relatively new program -- Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative -- allows some to do more extensive tracing through a partnership with the ATF.

The Inglewood Police Department, for instance, has attempted since early October to trace all guns coming into the department, said Inglewood Lt. Ron Wood, a criminal investigations supervisor.

That includes, Wood said, those “taken in for safe keeping by officers who go out on a domestic violence call. We can take weapons from the house for 48 hours for cooling off.”

“The thrust is to look at where the guns are coming from, the length of time they have been on the street, and whether there is one store where they keep coming from.”

The ultimate goal, he said, is to help eliminate the sources of illegal sales.

In a related partnership with the ATF, Project Lead, which began six months ago, Inglewood has had AFT trace guns used in crimes. The newer program is an extension of that one.

There have been no dramatic results from either so far, but Wood is hopeful that the tracing effort will pay off. “I think eventually there will be some good out of it, but who can tell at this point?

“We are kind of expanding what New York City has done,” Wood said. “They claim they have lowered crime with 100 percent tracing.”