Police Chiefs Are Stingy With Permits for Concealed Weapons

In El Segundo, you must pass a lie detector test. In Hermosa Beach, you need $2 million in insurance. In Torrance, you might have to prove that a can of tear-gas spray will not do the job. And in Hawthorne, you have to shoot as well as a cop.

“We don’t make it easy to get a gun permit,” said Torrance Police Chief Donald Nash, who might have spoken for the chiefs of the South Bay’s eight other independent police departments.

State law gives police chiefs the power to issue permits to residents of the same county to conceal weapons under their clothing or in their cars. Carrying a gun without a permit is a misdemeanor, unless it’s in plain sight. Permits are not needed to keep a gun at one’s home or business.

Uneven Numbers

South Bay police chiefs have generally been stingy, if somewhat uneven, in issuing a total of 90 permits. Three departments--in El Segundo, Gardena and Torrance--have authorized no one to carry a hidden gun, while the area’s smallest department, Palos Verdes Estates, has issued the most permits, 29.

All but five of the 90 permits were issued to men.

The question of who should carry concealed weapons has been raised this summer by the state Legislature, in the wake of a 1986 Assembly Office of Research report that said state gun laws have been “inconsistently applied, poorly constructed and, in some cases, confusing to the point of incomprehensibility.”

Currently, each police chief and sheriff in the state can set a policy on who should receive concealed weapon permits, but a uniform statewide policy would be created by a bill that will be considered Monday by the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

Most South Bay police chiefs said they will support the bill, which has been amended several times, only if it helps them maintain strict control over who may carry hidden guns.

“As far as I’m concerned, I don’t think that anybody at all ought to be carrying firearms in an enlightened society,” said El Segundo Police Chief Frank Meehan, who asks applicants not only to pass a lie-detector test but to provide the city with up to $3 million in liability insurance.

Those requirements have discouraged most people from applying for a permit, Meehan said, and other people have been turned down because they haven’t been able to persuade the chief that they needed to carry a concealed weapon.

More Permits in North

Rural counties in central and Northern California have been far more liberal with permits than authorities in Southern California. In Shasta County, 2,958 people, or one in every 46 residents, holds a permit.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is relatively stringent, with just 87 permit holders countywide, while the Los Angeles Police Department has not issued a single permit for 11 years.

Some authorities have been accused of handing out the permits as political favors. But in the South Bay, only two politicians hold permits, and the chiefs said they force all applicants to meet the same standards.

“Some people in political circles will call me up and say that someone will be calling me to ask for a permit,” said Inglewood Chief Ray Johnson, who refused to divulge any names. “I say, ‘Fine, have them call.’ But I have the same right to deny them.”

Only those who have shown a specific threat to their safety have been issued permits, and the number has remained constant since he became chief two years ago, Johnson said.

Health Reasons

Of Inglewood’s 18 concealed-weapon permits, 12 are held by reserve police officers, five belong to Municipal Court judges, and one is held by Assemblyman Curtis Tucker (D-Inglewood). Tucker has said he carries a .38-caliber revolver because his health is poor.

“I can’t fight, and I can’t run,” he said.

Several years ago, Tucker was confronted by a knife-wielding man as the assemblyman left a supermarket. He pulled out his gun, and the man fled.

Records show that the only other politician with a permit issued in the South Bay is Hawthorne City Councilman Charles W. Bookhammer.

Hawthorne Police Chief Kenneth R. Stonebraker said Bookhammer has shown the expertise to handle a gun, because he is a former reserve police officer, and the need, because he sometimes carries cash payments made to his insurance agency.

“It would have to be life or death before I would use it,” Bookhammer said. “It does give me some sense of security, but not a false sense of security.”

Most of the other 14 permit holders in Hawthorne are small-business owners but, like their counterparts in other cities, they declined to discuss their reasons for carrying guns.

Reserve Officers

In the beach cities, most of the permits are held by reserve police officers and merchants, whereas all 29 of Palos Verdes Estates’ permits belong to reserve police officers. Reserve officers are uniformed volunteers who accompany regular officers on patrol.

“I’m not worried about it or concerned, but I certainly am aware that we have a fairly large number, considering the size of the city,” interim Chief Jimmie Kennedy said. “My guess is that this number will decrease over the next few years as some of these permits expire.”

Permits last for one year except those held by reserve officers, which can last up to three years.

Kennedy said he is “fairly comfortable” with the 29 reserves who hold permits because they have been through 16 weeks of training. He said he has not issued any new permits in his five months as interim chief since Chief Monte Newman retired. Kennedy said his replacement, due to be appointed this summer, probably also will grant permits sparingly.

Besides worries about safety, police chiefs said, they are concerned that they and their cities could be held liable if someone licensed to carry a concealed weapon uses excessive force.

All nine departments check to make sure that applicants do not have a felony record. They also require some proof of weapons training and regular qualification on police firing ranges.

Fail to Show Need

Where most applicants fail, police chiefs said, is in showing a need to carry a concealed weapon. South Bay police departments typically receive one application a month or less, and most are denied because the applicants have not considered other alternatives to carrying a gun.

Police officials encourage business people who carry large sums of cash to trust their money to professional courier services, to make more frequent bank deposits or to use other defenses, such as a tear-gas spray.

The bill that goes before the Assembly this week, written by Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside), would impose statewide guidelines for granting a permit. Applicants would have to show that there is a specific threat to themselves or their families or that they are in a high-risk occupation.

Authorities would be allowed to deny permits to those who have threatened others or acted violently, or those who have demonstrated instability. Applicants who were denied a permit would be entitled to an explanation.

The penalty for concealing a weapon without a permit would be one year in jail under the new law. The current maximum sentence is six months. The maximum fine would remain $1,000.

CONCEALED-WEAPONS PERMITS Carson, Lennox, Lawndale, Lomita, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills and Rolling Hills Estates are covered by the county Sheriff’s Department, which has issued 87 permits countywide. Westchester, Playa del Rey, Harbor City, Harbor Gateway, Wilmington and San Pedro are served by the Los Angeles Police Department, which has not granted a permit in 11 years. Here is a breakdown of the number of permits issued by South Bay cities with their own police departments.

Permits Issued

El Segundo 0

Gardena 0

Hawthorne 15

Hermosa Beach 8

Inglewood 18

Manhattan Beach 5

Palos Verdes Estates 29

Redondo Beach 15

Torrance 0

TOTAL 90