By FENELLA SAUNDERS

A 20-year-old Appalachian State University student was accidentally shot and killed last week.

Christopher Todd Stewart of Charlotte died at a fraternity party at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after being shot with a gun his best friend had bought the afternoon before. The gun was thought to be unloaded.

"It's just a tragedy," said Anthony Mangum, the owner of the store where the gun was bought. "Guns are just tools, like cars. They're not inherently evil or good, but people have to respect them."

Although William Barnes, the student who bought the gun, is 21 and has a gun permit, many local gun control advocates are using this incident to illustrate the need for more gun control.

With the number of violent crimes surging in urban areas, city councils across the nation are debating the merits of gun control ordinances.

Opponents of gun control assert that citizens have a right to arm themselves against violence. Proponents of gun control say fewer guns will reduce the numbers of violent crimes.

Last year, 74.2 percent of murders, 35.8 percent of assaults and 46.5 percent of robberies in Durham involved a gun. Duke Medical Center's emergency room treated 157 gunshot wounds in 1992.

The Durham City Council is scheduled to vote Feb. 7 on an ordinance that would make it a misdemeanor for civilians to possess or display a gun in public places, including city buildings, buses, parks, streets, polling places or public assemblies.

Shooting a gun inside city limits, or taking a semi-automatic or automatic weapon off personal property would also be misdemeanors. The ordinance would prohibit taking a gun anywhere but to and from home, business or a range.

The punishment for these violations would be up to a $500 fine or 30 days in prison.

Gun control opponents do not think the ordinance could be enforced because people currently carry concealed firearms despite laws prohibiting it.

"Gun control tries to fool the public into thinking that the ordinance will be adhered to," said Tom Stark, who spoke at a Nov. 1 city council meeting on behalf of the North Carolina Sports Alliance and Durham Wildlife Club.

The city's proposed ordinance does not do enough to solve the real problem, which is the number of criminals on the streets, said Ed DeVito, chair of Merchants and Citizens Against Crime and owner of LeCoco Restaurant.

DeVito said the police are not to be blamed for the increased levels of crime, but rather the state legislature and judicial system are at fault. The police can't be everywhere at once, he said.

"The judicial system is letting people out when they are caught; they should be serving at least 80 percent of their sentence," he said. "If the state and courts won't protect us and keep criminals in jail, what other choice do we have [than to own guns]?"

DeVito's organization has sued the state for removal of the prison cap, which limits the number of prisoners that can be incarcerated at any one time. The group supports building more prisons to keep convicted criminals off the streets.

Building more jails is not going to solve the problem, said Durham mayor Sylvia Kerckhoff, co-chair of the crime prevention committee and an author of the gun control ordinance.

"[The children] are the ones getting the short shrift because we're not spending money at the community level, and we won't ever spend it if we start to build jails," she said. If resources are focused on jails instead of communities, the city will be "sentencing the next generation," she said.

Kerckhoff said that citizens need to be taught the responsible use of guns, but she does not think that people need guns to protect themselves. Guns should be stored away in the home, only to be taken out for specific purposes, such as hunting or target practice, she said.

"If everyone walks around with a gun, we will resort to savagery like the Middle East," she said.

Not all of the city council members support gun control as a solution to the crime problem. Two have publicly expressed opposition to the ordinance.

Councilman Kimbell Griffin said he is willing to consider anti-crime legislation, but restricting gun ownership is not the right route.

"I do not believe in taking guns away form citizens and not from criminals because [the criminals] will get guns," Griffin said. Griffin agreed that building more prisons would be a better course of action.

Kerckhoff readily admits there is no easy solution. No one believes that gun control will bring an end to violent crime, she said.

The ordinance is designed as a "quick-fix," a statement that the city government is not going to let crime take over Durham, and to give police more power to apprehend criminals, she said.

Paul Dumas, Duke Public Safety director, said he supports the ordinance but does not think it goes far enough. The ordinance would reduce crime by allowing police officers to stop anyone carrying a gun in public, Dumas said.

"If they're heading to commit a crime then you prevent it," he said.

Kerckhoff stressed that the city council has limited powers and no authority over the judicial system, but said the ordinance is needed not only to help Durham but to send a message to the state and national legislatures that change is needed immediately.

Gun control critics claim writing legislation that looks good politically rather than trying to implement effective change is a waste of time.

"Instead of attacking the real problem, they go out and tackle guns so they can tell people they're doing something," DeVito said.

Gun control will not prevent criminals from carrying guns or decrease crime, DeVito said. "Drug dealers won't stop carrying a gun because it's a misdemeanor, not when they'd go to jail for 15 years if caught for drugs."

Gun sales are up 50 percent at Don Hill's Gun and Lock Store as citizens' fear escalates, said Ken Carthen, a longtime employee at the store. "People are scared they're going to lose their rights to own semi-autos, and that's what I've been selling," Carthen said.

Carthen said he is not worried about loss of gun sales if the ordinance becomes law. "Certainly it can hurt some, but if people can't own semi-autos, then they will buy revolvers," he said.

Although gun control critics believe they have a good chance of blocking the new ordinance, DeVito said his organization plans to sue the city on constitutional grounds if it passes.

As an alternative, DeVito has proposed a solution to the council modeled on a Florida state law that permits anyone who has no drunk driving, drug or criminal record for three years, and no mental illness, to carry a gun. Anyone caught with an illegal gun would have a mandatory 10 year jail sentence.

But Kerckhoff said that such a law would not work in Durham because the community has too many underlying problems such as lack of cohesion and control.