State Bill to Permit Concealed Weapons Is Promoted at Rally : Palmdale: Assemblyman’s proposal to allow residents to carry handguns is cheered by many at local gathering.

Rustling up support for a proposed state law that would allow most residents to carry concealed handguns proved easy Friday night as Assemblyman William J. (Pete) Knight (R-Palmdale) took his case to the folks from home.

A rally at the Palmdale Cultural Center attracted nearly 500 Antelope Valley residents, none of whom seemed to need convincing about the benefits of concealed weapons.

“Our founding fathers left three boxes for us,” said Dewey White, 39, vice president of the Antelope Valley Republican Assembly, which sponsored the event. “The ballot box, the jury box and the cartridge box.”

Much of the Antelope Valley’s economy is based on military and engineering, which is why the population tends to be conservative, White said. In addition, he said many residents have grown used to being allowed to discharge firearms in remote areas of the desert without police interference.

“People used to be able to go up to 50th Street and fire as many shots as they wanted to in any direction and not hit anything,” he said. “And that was only about 10 years ago.”

Many in the crowd wore National Rifle Assn. baseball caps and cheered loudly as five speakers spent 90 minutes promoting Knight’s measure, Assembly Bill 638. The bill would allow any resident at least 21 years old to obtain a concealed weapons permit unless good cause for denial--such as a history of criminal activity or mental illness--could be shown by a governing agency.

Knight said his bill, scheduled for consideration by an Assembly committee April 18, will cause criminals to think twice before they rob or attack because their targeted victim may be armed.

“How many of you know you are sitting in Palmdale’s highest crime area?” Knight asked at one point.

“I’ll bet it’s safe in this room,” one man shouted out, receiving laughter and loud applause.

Several people said the bill isn’t a perfect solution to today’s problems, but it is the only one that will work.

“There’s not enough police officers in the damn world,” said Ernest Cobb, 68, a Palmdale resident for the past 13 years. “I don’t advocate everybody running around with a gun on their hip, but in today’s world if you’re going to protect yourself you need some laws that make sense.”

The opening speech at the rally was delivered by Jeff Storm, a Palmdale resident who was critically injured 18 months ago when he was shot twice by an intruder in his home. He said the incident turned him from a “marginal” gun-rights advocate to a full supporter.

“The only thing that kept him from finishing us off after he reloaded his pistol is because I had a 15-year-old son who had the wherewithal to go back into my bedroom and get my gun, and become a threat himself,” he said.

Storm compared current efforts to tighten gun laws to Hitler’s disarming of citizens before World War II.

“If a few of the Jews had been armed, I don’t think 6 million of them would have died in gas chambers,” he said.

One controversial speaker who found a receptive audience was Simi Valley Councilwoman Sandi Webb, who recently called William Masters II a “hero” for fatally shooting a teen-age graffiti tagger he said had threatened him. She also suggested police carry rock salt to shoot at other taggers and admitted she sometimes carries a concealed gun when she drives to Los Angeles.

Like Storm, Webb told the crowd she was a crime victim who had resolved never to be taken advantage of again. She said that an intruder raped her in her home 20 years ago in San Bernardino and that she intends to protect herself and her daughter “at all costs.”

“If I could wave a magic wand and all of the weapons in the world would disappear, the world still wouldn’t be safe, because the man who raped me didn’t have a gun,” she said. “All he had were his fists.”

Opponents have claimed Knight’s bill would lead to more shootings during confrontations, but he said a similar law in Florida has been in effect successfully since 1987.

“Initially, they said it’s going to be Dodge City all over again,” Knight said. “After the first year the police said, ‘Well, we haven’t started the shootouts yet.’ And finally after three years the police started saying, ‘By golly, it’s working.’ ”

But some local law enforcement officials say more guns often lead to more shootings.

“The more guns that are out on the street--whether they are permitted or not--opens up the possibility of more accidental shootings or shootings done out of anger,” Sgt. Kim Ruppert of the Antelope Valley Sheriff’s Station said in an interview.

“Across the nation, law enforcement does not like to see more guns being carried by citizens on the street because it usually leads to an increase in gun thefts and therefore it is more likely that (the guns) will be used by the wrong people.”

According to public health research, handguns kept in the home are 43 times more likely to kill the gun’s owner, a friend or a family member than to kill an intruder.

Times staff writer Jeannette DeSantis contributed to this story.