Many With Permits Pack Guns for Protection

To Samuel Lyons, 84, living in Santa Ana without a gun is out of the question.

The victim of three house burglaries and old age, Lyons keeps a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver to protect himself and his ailing wife. He has never used it.

“If you can find anyone who hasn’t been robbed in Santa Ana, I’d like to meet them,” Lyons said Saturday at home, where he is recovering from a heart attack.

Lyons, who still walks to his job at a car lot five days a week, added: “I’m happy I got the gun, and that’s all there is to it.”

Lyons’ name was among about 500 people granted gun permits by Sheriff Brad Gates. The list was released after a judge ruled in favor of CBS Inc., which had sued Gates to make the information public.

The documents, which were copies of all permits for concealed weapons and permit requests in 1983 in Orange County, provide a glimpse into who in the county packs a pistol and why.

Many of the permit holders are law-enforcement officials, including a member of the state parole board, deputy district attorneys and judges who expressed concern about their safety because of the criminal cases they handle.

Doctors and dentists said in the applications they needed to protect themselves because they carried large amounts of cash or drugs when leaving the office.

The reasons ranged from the obvious to the unexpected.

Grace Leber, a diminutive El Toro housewife who stands 5-feet-2 and weighs 103 pounds, was granted permits to carry a .357-magnum Smith & Wesson revolver and a .32-caliber Llama automatic because, as she wrote in October, 1980, she “plans to operate (a) Christmas tree lot in December.”

A 51-year-old attorney received permits for two automatic handguns because of “persistent threats by unknown party to kill me.”

Vernon Lowry, 70, of Cypress, a security guard, worked nights for many years as principal of adult school in Watts. He said he carries a gun as “an insurance policy. “I go places where police go in pairs,” said Lowry, who continues to work at night in Watts as an educational consultant. “Down there it’s not who you know, it’s who knows you. I need it for self protection only.”

Still, a vast majority of the people holding gun permits from the sheriff’s office are involved in some kind of law-enforcement work.

Stephen Knott, a general partner of Knott’s Berry Farm who oversees its security division, said Saturday that in his 25 years at the amusement park, the gun has been necessary during arrests for burglary or use of counterfeit money.

Knott, who was a member of the military police in the Army and who attended a police officers’ academy, added: “When I’m away from Knott’s, I sure as heck don’t carry it around.”

Gary Resnick, a dean at Irvine Valley College, also has a permit to carry a concealed weapon. He said he takes it to school only on those days when he must go straight from the campus to the Sheriff’s Department where he is a reserve lieutenant.

Like most of those The Times reached, Resnick has not had to fire his weapon.

“Other than working as a sheriff’s reserve officer, living in Orange County I don’t feel there’s much of a need (to carry a gun).

Several Were Angry

Several people were angry that their gun permit applications had become public. Although no one cited it as a reason, the guidelines issued by the sheriff warn that a permit can be revoked for “discussing the issuance of the permit with anyone other than law-enforcement officials.”

“It’s a personal thing,” said John Porter, a former pilot and gun owner who works as a reserve officer for the Sheriff’s Department.

“For the law-enforcement community especially, criminals can now identify the community where we live, and some people are listed in the phone book. If somebody decides I am the guy who put him in an institution, and they come looking for me, the crime (against me) will be more violent.”

When asked to explain why he has a permit for a concealed weapon, John Nicoll, the usually candid superintendent of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, would only say, “On this one, I don’t have any comment.”