Officials Back Easing of Weapon Law

A group of Ventura County public officials on Thursday voiced their support for loosening state restrictions on carrying concealed weapons.

The politicians--including council members from Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland (R-Granada Hills) and two Assembly candidates--spoke to members of the newly formed East Ventura County chapter of the National Rifle Assn.

The 6-month-old chapter has made it a top priority to seek local support for Assembly Bill 638, which would relax California’s restrictions on issuing permits for concealed weapons.

Simi Valley Councilwoman Sandi Webb told the crowd that the the state Constitution gives citizens the right to protect their property but not the means to do so. “I feel the Second Amendment is my permit,” she said to applause from the audience of mainly NRA members.

In an interview before the meeting, Webb said she decided to carry a gun 20 years ago after being raped and having her former residence in San Diego burglarized.

“Just the fact that I am an honest citizen, that I have no criminal record, that I passed a [firearm] safety test, have a background check and prove that I can shoot a gun, gives me the right to have a permit,” she said

Webb publicly admitted last spring that she illegally carries a loaded gun in her purse when traveling to Los Angeles.

Although carrying a concealed weapon without a permit is a misdemeanor, Simi Valley Police Chief Randy Adams said Webb has not been prosecuted because she said she carried the gun while in Los Angeles, which is not part of the department’s jurisdiction.

Currently, concealed weapons permits are selectively handed out by top law enforcement officials in each jurisdiction. Typically, the police chief or county sheriff decides whether an individual has just cause to carry a weapon.

Thousand Oaks Councilman Mike Markey, a Compton police officer who spoke in favor of looser restrictions for the first time Thursday, said he would prefer to have people carrying guns legally, and that under the current system most permits go to the politically connected and social elite.

“It is important for everyday citizens to protect themselves. We need to change the law so that people can carry [guns] legally,” he said.

Simi Valley Councilwoman Barbara Williamson, who has been trap and skeet shooting for sport since 1961, also spoke in favor of the bill.

“There have been times when I have been in a car and it’s late at night or I have gone camping in Ventura County and I wish I had [a gun],” she said.

The politicians said they did not believe that loosening restrictions would lead to greater crime rates or make the work of the police more difficult, citing statistics from a liberal concealed weapons law that Florida passed in 1987.

Markey said he believed people would be more likely to undergo proper training in firearm safety and notify police that they were carrying guns if it was legal.

Others top law enforcers in the county were not so sure. Cmdr. Kathryn Kemp of the sheriff’s substation in Thousand Oaks said while she sympathizes with the public’s desire to carry guns for protection, she fears that without adequate training people not used to using guns might by accident shoot someone.

“It depends on what type of training you provide for people,” she said. “A little 24-hour class one time before you go and buy a gun is not going to prepare people for the moment when they have to decide to take a life.”

Adams, who assumed his office last month, said he is devising criteria to guide him in issuing permits. In doing so, he said he walks a fine line between being overly restrictive and not wanting to put more guns on the streets.