LAPD’s Tight Control on Gun Permits May Prompt New Lawsuit : Firearms: Police have granted only five requests from first 200 applications. Advocates claim they are failing to comply with tentative settlement.

Firearms advocates were jubilant last year as they predicted that thousands of Angelenos would soon be legally walking the streets with loaded guns in their pockets, purses and shoulder holsters.

A tentative out-of-court settlement had been reached that forced the Los Angeles Police Department to give concealed weapon permits to a dozen litigants in a lawsuit and to set up a policy for issuing such licenses to other residents.

It is illegal to carry a concealed weapon without a permit and the LAPD had a longstanding policy of refusing to issue any such licenses. Gun advocates predicted that 10,000 concealed weapon permits would be issued by the LAPD within a year.

But in the nine months since the settlement was announced, only five permits have been issued from the first 200 applications.

Gun advocates are crying foul and say the settlement is coming unraveled.

“There are a lot of frustrated people out there who need a permit and they’ve come to us,” said attorney David Yochelson, who is preparing to renew the legal battle.

City officials respond that if gun enthusiasts have their way, everyone in Los Angeles would be carrying a firearm and gun control advocates warn that concealed weapons only raise the level of violence.

“Anybody in this country who believes that they are afforded greater protection from carrying a gun simply doesn’t understand the danger when you introduce a firearm into a situation,” said Sandy Cooney, western regional director of Handgun Control.

The LAPD has set up strict standards requiring that applicants for concealed weapon permits show a “clear and present danger” that cannot be handled by alternative security measures.

Four new permits went to attorneys: a county prosecutor, an assistant city attorney and two private lawyers. The fifth went to a city fire captain. Two applications have been approved but the permits have not yet been issued.

Gun advocates charge that city officials are stalling and have established an elitist concealed weapons policy. New litigants are being lined up to revive the dormant lawsuit or to bring new action.

“I myself have applied for a permit and been rejected,” Yochelson said. “I believe in the right to protect myself--not just in my home and business, but in my car when I go out at night or day.

“I think I have a moral obligation to protect myself,” he said.

Firearms author J. Neil Schulman, who helped organize the original suit against the city, agrees with Yochelson.

“I believe as a matter of personal responsibility that when you’re an adult, you give up the fantasy that the police are going to protect you,” Schulman said. “The police cannot protect you when you are in danger. You have to rely on yourself.”

Schulman was able to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon from the Police Department in his hometown of Culver City, where applicants only need to state a general need to carry a firearm. The 139 weapons permits issued in Culver City last year were by far the most granted by any city police department in the county.

Gun advocates involved in last year’s tentative settlement have proposed that the LAPD adopt concealed weapon guidelines that are so broad that virtually anyone free of a criminal conviction or commitment for mental illness would qualify for a permit.

The proposed guidelines would state that it is “good cause” for a concealed weapons license to be issued if an applicant is “a realtor, merchant, firefighter, ambulance attendant or emergency medical technician, meter reader, delivery person, telephone or cable TV installer or other person who is required to work in or travel to or through areas with unusually high incidence of criminal victimization.”

But the standards adopted by the city since the settlement are much stricter.

Applicants must state a specific and compelling reason for carrying a gun, as opposed to a general desire for self-protection, said Assistant City Atty. Byron Boeckman, who worked on the tentative settlement last year.

“If we operate on the theory that every person who applies just has to say ‘I live in Los Angeles, I’m scared to death,’ we would in effect have an on-demand policy,” he said. “L.A. is a tough town to live in. On that basis, 3.1 million people would qualify.”

Several states, such as Florida, have recently adopted policies of issuing concealed weapon permits on demand, but Boeckman does not believe that that should happen here.

“I don’t think that the political climate in Los Angeles is going in that direction,” he said.

Applications for concealed weapon permits are processed by the LAPD gun detail and forwarded to Boeckman, a procedure that can take months.

LAPD Chief Willie L. Williams signs off on approved licenses, but the final decision is in reality made by Boeckman.

The handful of concealed weapon permits granted to non-litigants since September were among 200 applications, most of which were received before the settlement. Boeckman defended the approval rate as reasonable, but acknowledged that he has not had time to look at another 600 to 800 applications that are being processed by the gun detail.

Even so, the numbers are far short of the deluge of applications predicted by gun advocates.

One theory to explain the relatively low number of requests is that the LAPD’s reputation for denying concealed weapon permits has discouraged applications. Another theory is that tens of thousands of Southern Californians have elected to routinely break the law and are carrying concealed weapons without permits, as indicated by a 1992 Times Poll.

It is a misdemeanor in California to carry a concealed weapon or to transport a loaded firearm in a vehicle without a permit.

Each law enforcement agency in the state has the authority to set standards for granting concealed weapon permits to residents of the county in which the agencies are located.

Applicants who are unsuccessful in obtaining concealed weapon permits from the police jurisdiction of their hometowns may seek such licenses from other police departments within the county or from the county sheriff. Applicants may not be licensed by police agencies outside their counties of residence.

Criteria for granting concealed weapon permits vary widely from the tight controls of the LAPD and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to the on-demand policy of the Shasta County Sheriff’s Department in Northern California.

“Just anybody and everybody” with a clean record qualifies for a permit in Shasta County, where about 3,500 people can legally carry guns, said Kelly Carlson, sheriff’s law enforcement clerk.

Concealed weapon permits are normally granted for one year at a time and, unless otherwise stipulated, allow the holders to carry guns anywhere in the state.

The suit that was tentatively settled last year accused the city of violating state law by denying all applications for concealed weapon permits.

The LAPD’s new policy is based on standards used by the Sheriff’s Department.

As in other jurisdictions, both agencies require that an applicant’s record be free of felonies, serious misdemeanors or commitments to mental institutions.

Also, the LAPD and Sheriff’s Department require that an applicant for a concealed weapon show that there is a “clear and present danger” that cannot be handled by law enforcement officers or by alternative measures.

But the granting or denial of a permit appears to be a subjective decision.

The Sheriff’s Department is more than twice as likely to issue a permit than the LAPD.

While the LAPD was approving seven out of 200 applications, for a 3.5% approval rate, the Sheriff’s Department approved 88 of about 1,000 applications, for an approval rate of nearly 9%.

Sandy Shire, a jeweler who will probably be a new litigant in the dispute over concealed weapons, maintains that his application to carry a gun was denied because the LAPD policy is elitist.

“I’m not surprised that the permits go to attorneys or a fire captain,” he said. “What about guys like me or other businessmen that have to carry large sums of money?”

Shire, who lives in Los Angeles and operates a jewelry store in West Hollywood, said on his concealed weapon application that he routinely carries large amounts of money and valuable goods in the course of buying and selling jewelry at pawn shops, swap meets and other locations.

He also said that he had been the victim of a burglary and that he had received death threats from a man who was grappling with a deputy and who was taken into custody with Shire’s help. Shire said he provided police reports as documentation.

Shire also presented documentation that he had completed defensive handgun training as well as a letter of reference from a sheriff’s officer that the jeweler had done extensive public safety work with deputies.

Shire’s application, which was submitted Nov. 19, was denied last month.

By way of comparison, the concealed weapon application of attorney Dwight Henry Lindholm, submitted Sept. 10, was one of the seven approved by the LAPD since the settlement.

Lindholm presented evidence on his application that his life had been threatened by a former client. Lindholm also presented documentation that police and others considered the client dangerous and that the man had watched Lindholm’s house from across the street.

Unlike Shire, Lindholm said he had taken no firearms training course, but said that he had grown up with guns in a rural setting and that he had done target shooting as a hobby in Los Angeles.

Lindholm was issued a permit to carry a 9-millimeter Smith & Wesson semiautomatic pistol.

But the decisions to deny the application of the jeweler and grant the lawyer’s were not based on elitism, Assistant City Atty. Boeckman said.

Attorneys, Boeckman said, face special dangers.

Getting Permits

Here is a breakdown of new and renewed concealed weapon permits issued by law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles County in 1993.

Alhambra police: 3

Arcadia police: 20

Beverly Hills police: 1

Burbank police: 11

Covina police: 2

Culver City police: 139

Downey police: 2

El Monte police: 29

Glendale police: 2

Glendora police: 2

Hawthorne police: 1

Hermosa Beach police: 4

Huntington Park police: 11

Inglewood police: 11

Irwindale police: 35

Los Angeles police: 5

Los Angeles County sheriff: 225

Long Beach police: 1

Manhattan Beach police: 6

Monrovia police: 1

Montebello police: 4

Monterey Park police: 24

Palos Verdes Estates police: 21

Pasadena police: 1

Pomona police: 1

Redondo Beach police: 13

San Fernando police: 27

Santa Monica police: 2

Sierra Madre police: 6

South Gate police: 1

South Pasadena police: 7

Total: 618

Source: State Department of Justice

Note: These figures reflect permits issued or renewed last year and do not include all the concealed weapon permits in the county. The Sheriff’s Department, for example, has authorized 300 people to carry concealed weapons this year, but only 225 are in the tally of licenses issued last year. Some permit holders, such as retired FBI agents, are licensed for three years.