City Divided by Move to Let Residents Carry Guns : Safety: Stockton weighs idea opposed by mayor, police chief. About 130,000 people could be eligible.

City Councilman Nick Rust, a card-carrying member of the National Rifle Assn., is pushing a new plan to fight crime: Give all law-abiding citizens the right to carry a hidden weapon whenever they leave their homes.

At a time when many California communities are trying to get guns off the streets, Rust has proposed a city ordinance that would allow as many as 130,000 people--most of Stockton’s adult population--to obtain a concealed weapon permit.

“My ultimate goal is to make Stockton a safer place for people to live,” said the 48-year-old councilman and management consultant. “What I’m saying is, people have the right to defend themselves.”

The proposal has sharply divided this San Joaquin Valley city, which gained national attention five years ago when a gunman opened fire with an assault rifle on children in a schoolyard, killing five and wounding 29. The tragedy inspired city, state and federal assault rifle bans.

Stockton’s mayor and police chief, as well as national gun control groups, strongly oppose the proposed ordinance--which would be the first in California to make it easier to obtain concealed weapon permits. They argue that arming the citizenry would lead to deadlier domestic violence and a greater number of accidental shootings.

“Everything we know about firearms misuse and abuse tells us this sort of approach is insanity,” said Sandy Cooney, western regional director of Handgun Control Inc. “It can only do one thing, and that is add to the epidemic of injury and death from guns.”

Whatever its merits, foes and supporters agree that the ordinance has a good chance of passing when it comes before the seven-member City Council tonight.

The proposal has struck a chord with many townspeople who are fed up with crime and the difficulty police have protecting residents. “Criminals are going to carry guns no matter what,” said Michael Anthony Dunn, manager of the Stockton Gun Exchange. “Why not give the law-abiding citizens a chance?”

With the Stockton proposal, the National Rifle Assn. and other supporters hope to bring to California the same kind of standards already approved by nine states, which greatly expanded the number of people who can carry loaded weapons on their person or in their car.

Current laws allow citizens to keep loaded guns in their homes or businesses without a permit, but 70% of crimes occur elsewhere, they say.

“Basically, the value of this program is to put the criminal on notice that law-abiding citizens of a community are no longer going to be unarmed prey,” said Dale Thurston, a leader of Citizens for a Better Stockton, a group affiliated with the NRA that offers gun-handling and safety courses.

In California, state law leaves it up to police chiefs and county sheriffs to decide who should be granted a concealed weapon permit. Such permits allow the holder to carry a hidden, loaded weapon anywhere in the state, except in restricted areas such as airports and courthouses.

Under the law, applicants must be of good moral character and have no felony convictions or history of mental problems.

Most jurisdictions issue relatively few permits and require applicants to demonstrate a valid reason to carry a concealed weapon. In all of Los Angeles County, with a population of 9.2 million, the Sheriff’s Department and city police chiefs gave out 618 concealed weapon permits through 1993--one for every 14,936 people.

In Stockton, Police Chief Ed Chavez issues permits only to applicants who can prove a need for a concealed gun, such as receiving threats or carrying large amounts of cash. In the past 18 months, the chief has issued four new permits, bringing the city’s total to 207 for a population of 230,000--one for every 1,111 people.

But under the Stockton proposal, gun owners could qualify for a concealed weapon permit without having to prove any special need. Rust--who recently received approval for his own permit after receiving threats--argues that the level of crime in the city is sufficient need for anyone to carry a gun.

Rust’s ordinance would strip away the chief’s discretion and require him to issue a permit to anyone who did not fall into certain undesirable groups, such as convicted felons, the mentally disturbed, illegal immigrants and known gang members, drug users and people with alcohol problems.

Applicants also would be required to pay a fee and pass a gun safety course, such as the one offered by Citizens for a Better Stockton.

Chavez said the measure would tie his hands and could endanger his officers during routine encounters with the public. If the ordinance passes, he said, he is likely to challenge it in court before agreeing to issue permits on a wide scale.

“We have a certain population that carries weapons illegally,” the chief said. “I don’t think the way to solve that is to arm everybody else.”

Supporters of the measure cite Florida as an example of how the law could work. Florida, with a population of 13.7 million, passed a similar measure in 1987 and has since issued more than 227,000 concealed weapon permits--one for every 60 people. Proponents say violent crime has dropped in the state since passage of the law and contend that accidental shootings have not increased.

But critics and law enforcement officials say data has not been collected to show whether the law has contributed to a decrease in crime or resulted in a greater number of accidental and domestic shootings. “There’s no way to tell,” said Detective Juan del Castillo, a spokesman for the Metro-Dade Police Department in Miami.

In recent years, the movement to arm members of the general public has gained strength with the passage of similar laws in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Arizona, North Dakota, South Dakota, Maine, West Virginia and Georgia.

Yet during the same period, a number of big cities have initiated a variety of gun exchange and buy-back programs designed to take guns out of circulation.

Foes of the Stockton proposal say it will bring back the days of the Wild West and prompt shoot-outs in the streets among armed civilians. They also fear that children will be more likely to die in tragic accidents as they find guns in more accessible places, such as purses and auto glove compartments.

Critics contend that even Patrick Purdy, the deranged drifter who gunned down 34 children and a teacher at Stockton’s Cleveland Elementary School in 1989, theoretically could have qualified for a concealed weapon permit under the standards of the proposed ordinance.

“I just don’t think it’s good public policy for people to carry guns around on the streets or in their cars when we have a culture with such a high incidence of alcohol problems and people walking around with undiagnosed mental problems,” said Andrew McGuire, executive director of the Pacific Center for Violence Prevention in San Francisco.

Stockton Mayor Joan Darrah says the city has succeeded in reducing violent crime by 5.5% in the last year by adding 125 police officers to the force. She and other city leaders worry that passage of Rust’s proposal will perpetuate Stockton’s poor image.

“What kind of perception are we going to send to our community, the state and the nation?” Chavez asked.

Opponents of the measure also cite the accidental shooting of 14-year-old Matilda Kaye Crabtree by her father last week in Louisiana as an example of the kind of incident that will occur more frequently if the citizenry is armed.

The teen-ager hid in a closet as a practical joke and jumped out, saying “boo” to scare her father, who had not expected her to be home. Armed with a .357 Magnum, he shot her in the neck. “I love you, Daddy,” she said just before she died.

But advocates of the proposal counter that citizens cannot expect the police to guard them from violent criminals.

Part of the rationale for the proposal, Rust said, is that “the bad guys” won’t know who among their targets might be packing a pistol and will think twice about mugging and robbing people.

Based on experiences in other states, Rust and Thurston predict that no more than one in every 25 Stockton residents would receive permits--a total of about 9,200 gun owners. And they insist that good training of civilians will prevent the kind of accidents that opponents fear.

“The people who are opposing this are on the edge of hysteria,” the councilman said.