Senate Votes to Ban Phony ‘Beeper’ Holsters

The Senate voted Friday to make it a felony to manufacture, sell or possess a phony radio-pager holster that actually conceals a tiny handgun capable of escaping airport security detection.

The bill, sponsored by the Los Angeles Police Department and carried by Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights), was sent to the Assembly on a 28-0 vote.

Campbell said “would-be criminals and would-be terrorists” armed with a tiny .22-caliber handgun secreted in what appears to be a belt-worn pager, or “beeper,” could avoid airport security examination and board an airplane.

Can Avoid Detection

Rather than passing the “beeper” through detection equipment, he said, the criminal would merely remove the device from his or her belt and put it on a tray along with coins, keys and other metal items that are not sent through the metal detector and are returned to the traveler.

The LAPD acquired one such phony beeper from a mail order firm in Texas several months ago. An advertisement in a magazine touted the device as “looking like a radio pager clipped to your belt. Holds a .22-LR mini-revolver inside, ready for instant use.”

None Encountered Yet

Campbell, who indicated that authorities in Los Angeles had not actually encountered anyone armed with the weapon, told the Senate that the gun can be cocked and fired without removing it from the holster.

Existing law regulates concealable firearms, but a pager holster is not considered a weapon. The bill would make it a felony punishable by up to three years in prison to make, sell or possess a pager-holster gun or other “camouflaged” firearm containers.

In addition, the bill would require law enforcement authorities to destroy such weapons when seized.