A very strange problem: MouseEvent

there is a moveclip a_mc and it contains a button: a_mc.b_btn

When using a_mc.b_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handler) i got nothing when the button is clicked, but if I use

a_mc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handler)

And the target in the handler is b_btn

Any one tell me why I cannot just listen to the event with the button!?