Revolver Within a Pager Holster : Ban of Weapon Hiders Sought

The Los Angeles Police Department is urging a change in state law to ban the manufacture, sale or possession of weapon-concealing devices designed to look like pager-beepers, radios, suitcases, cameras, books or other ordinary items.

Lt. Ed Hocking, commanding officer of Hollywood detectives, took the lead in proposing the legislative change after acquiring from a Texas mail-order firm a “pager holster” designed to look like a plastic beeper that actually holds a miniature .22-caliber revolver.

When a revolver is placed inside the pager holster, the gun can be cocked and fired by simply pulling two small switches on the housing, Hocking said.

“A device of this type can only be called an assassination kit as it serves no other useful purpose to the general public,” he said.

The pager holster, which surfaced a few months ago, has caused concern among law enforcement officers and prosecutors at the federal, city, county and state levels because no law adequately covers the device.

A recent advertisement placed by Split-Second Security, a Houston firm, in a gun magazine describes the device as looking “just like a radio pager clipped to your belt. Holds a .22-LR mini-revolver inside, ready for instant use,” the advertisement says.

Authorities were unaware of any other business selling the devices. Split-Second could not be reached for comment.

LAPD spokesman William Booth said that although the department is not aware of any crimes in Southern California involving use of the weapon-concealing devices, the department will ask the state Legislature to act as soon as possible to ban them.

Law enforcement officers say they fear that, in this age of instant electronic communication, so many people carry beepers that a weapon concealed this way might easily go unnoticed.

David Troy, an official with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Los Angeles, said his agency is aware of the gun holder but has no jurisdiction over manufacture and sale of the device “because under federal firearms guidelines it is just a holster and not an actual weapon.”

The Secret Service, responsible for protection of the President, is also aware of the weapon, according to Rich Adams, a spokesman for the agency in Washington. “Our technical people are now researching the device,” Adams said.

Most law enforcement officers who have seen or heard of the device are alarmed. The LAPD’s training division is now considering putting together a short videotape for its officers showing what the weapon looks like and how it operates.

Fred Farrar, a spokesman in Washington for the Federal Aviation Administration, said his agency “recently sent out a memo to all our security people here and overseas alerting them to the potential threat (from the device) to civil aviation security.”

“We also have passed the alert on to the airlines so they can inform their security people as well,” Farrar said.

The LAPD position is that under current law any person caught with a gun in a pager holster or other such device can be arrested for carrying a concealed weapon, a misdemeanor which carries a $1,000 fine or up to six months in jail for first-time offenders. The department wants the new law to cover possession of the holster itself.

Duane Peterson, a spokesman for state Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp’s office, said he believes that under state law, sale or possession of the pager holster is legal.