Most Had to Sue to Get OK for Concealed Guns

Only eight people have been able to obtain permits to carry concealed weapons without first suing the Los Angeles Police Department, despite a court settlement two years ago in which the city agreed to start issuing them.

All told, 53 Los Angeles residents, ranging from security guards to people who have been threatened by violent criminals, have been granted permission to carry concealed weapons, far fewer than the tens of thousands predicted by gun advocates when they settled their suit in 1993.

“It seems that the city does not want to issue the permits unless they are sued,” said attorney Warren Lipson, who represented eight applicants. The city “used one delay tactic after another. It took months.”

In fact, only one person who didn’t sue--a man whose convict son allegedly hired an assassin to kill him--has a current permit to carry a concealed weapon. Of the remaining seven non-litigated permits, two have been revoked, four have expired and one was never claimed by the man who applied for it.

It is illegal to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. Before the settlement, the LAPD had a longstanding policy of refusing to issue such licenses.

Gun advocates predicted that 10,000 people a year would seek and obtain licenses from the department. But no more than 600 have applied to date, authorities said.

At least one man whose permit has expired has tried repeatedly, with no luck, to get it reinstated, according to an attorney who has represented a number of applicants.

“If things don’t get rapidly better we’re going to go into court and sue for contempt,” said Don Kates, a San Francisco-based attorney who handled the original suit against the city in 1992.

Kates said the city appeared to be violating several provisions of the settlement, including one that required applications to be handled within 50 days.

Byron Boeckman, the deputy city attorney who handled the gun lawsuits and who represents the Police Department on this issue, said most people who apply don’t have good reasons to carry a hidden weapon.

To get a permit, he said, residents need to pass a background check and prove that they face a “clear and present danger” of violence in their lives. For example, he said, a permit was issued to a man whose son testified against a gang member and who feared retaliation.

By contrast, he said, most people simply cite a generic fear of violence in Los Angeles.

“The most common is that they don’t feel safe, that they live in a bad neighborhood,” Boeckman said. “That’s not enough.”

He said 400 to 600 people have applied for permits, including about 50 who have sued.

It is possible that permit issuance will speed up somewhat now that a new committee meant to hear appeals in gun permit cases has started meeting.

The committee, appointed by Kates as part of the settlement, will serve in an advisory capacity only. It consists of two lawyers who brought cases against the LAPD on behalf of permit seekers, a gun expert and a businessman who was a plaintiff.

“We will hear the complaints of people who applied for permits and were denied by the Police Department,” said O. Ray Watkins, who publishes a chain of weekly newspapers in South Los Angeles. So far, he said, the committee has met once and recommended that four new applications be granted.