Official Says She Carries Gun, Seeks Eased Rules : Legislature: Simi Valley councilwoman backs bill to allow more people to carry concealed, loaded weapons. She says women need firearms for protection.

Brandishing the signatures of 3,000 people who believe that carrying a firearm ought to be legal, Simi Valley’s defiant City Councilwoman Sandi Webb told state lawmakers Tuesday that--lawful or not--she totes a gun to protect herself and her teen-age daughter.

In a deliberate, forceful voice, Webb testified before the Assembly Public Safety Committee in support of a bill to allow more people to legally carry concealed, loaded weapons.

Webb, along with other witnesses, portrayed the so-called “right to carry” cause as a women’s rights issue and guns as the great gender equalizer.

She told lawmakers how she was raped 20 years ago when an attacker overpowered her with fists and a pillow and called it a personal turning point. It was then, Webb said, that she realized women needed the edge of firepower to even the odds against male assailants. She went out and bought her first handgun.

“If I could wave a magic wand and magically make all the weapons on the face of the Earth disappear, I would still not be safe,” Webb said. “I am not physically capable of defending myself or my daughter” against the force of male attackers, she said.

Webb joined three other outspoken women activists in an all-star lineup of witnesses recruited by state Assemblyman William J. (Pete) Knight (R-Palmdale) to promote his bill.

Two of the others--Rebecca John of Colorado and Suzanna Gratia of Texas--have gained national prominence as crime victims testifying in state after state in pursuit of more liberalized gun-carrying laws. The third, Elodie McKee of Burbank, is a licensed firearms instructor who is spearheading a grass-roots group of women backing gun rights. All four have survived violent attacks.

Knight’s bill, supported by the National Rifle Assn. and Gun Owners of California Inc., would require police chiefs and sheriffs to issue as many concealed weapons permits as there are qualified applicants.

To qualify under the bill, one need be 21 or older, have no record of felony convictions, be able to show mental competency and complete firearms safety training.

As of Tuesday evening, committee members had not yet cast final votes on whether to allow the bill to proceed to the floor of the Assembly. But Knight’s staff was not optimistic that it would pass and said the assemblyman may have to bring it up again next year.

Current state law gives police chiefs or sheriffs complete discretion over issuing permits, a process that often results, Knight says, in a discriminatory system that favors a privileged few but excludes minorities and women.

This affects women most, said John. “Women are physically disadvantaged to men,” she said. “They are most often attacked by men. And when all people across the board are told they cannot carry (weapons), it is women who are hurt the most.”

Such remarks struck Elizabeth Toledo, state coordinator for California’s National Organization for Women, as exploitative because most violence against women actually occurs in the home, she said.

“To market this bill as something that is going to help stop violence is a myth the NRA is perpetuating nationwide,” Toledo said. “It’s just another marketing strategy--along with these very small cute, pink handguns they try to sell to women.”

Speaking in opposition to the bill were representatives from the California Police Officers Assn., the California Police Chiefs Assn., the California State Sheriffs Assn., the Assn. for Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriffs, and a spokeswoman for Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block.

They said they fear that more guns on the streets will mean more crime, higher injury rates and more perilous situations for officers and deputies.