Lawmaker Says He Sometimes Carries Gun on Assembly Floor

With attention drawn to an Assembly bill that would allow citizens to carry concealed weapons, one member of the lower house says he already does so, both on and off the Assembly floor.

“I’m not armed today,” said Assemblyman Larry Bowler (R-Elk Grove) at the conclusion of Friday’s floor session. But fellow members “know I carry a gun.”

As a retired Sacramento County sheriff’s lieutenant, the silver-haired conservative, 56, said he is authorized to carry a weapon and exercises the right “sometimes” during Assembly debates.

State law prohibits anyone except “duly appointed peace officers” from carrying weapons inside the Capitol building, but security officials for the Legislature said the law is unclear about whether the prohibition applies to retired officers.

Two other former peace officers are members of the Assembly, Northern California Republicans George House and Richard K. Rainey. They said they choose not to carry concealed weapons in the Capitol.

In the state Senate, veteran chief sergeant-at-arms Tony Beard said that when he occasionally sees a “bulge” under a senator’s coat, he has “told the member there is already plenty of security in the chamber” and has asked the senator to leave the weapon home. All have complied, he said.

The Republican-controlled Assembly last week passed a bill that would open the door to most citizens who wanted to carry concealed weapons, replacing more severe restrictions.

Assemblyman Louis Caldera (D-Los Angeles), who spoke against the gun bill last week, said Friday that although Bowler may be within the law, “I don’t feel safer because he carries a weapon.” An armed individual “is human just like the rest of us and can make mistakes in moments of anger or despondency,” Caldera said.

Bowler said that he carries his semiautomatic .380-caliber sidearm--”a nice little weapon”--in an “under-the-shirt holster, not in a quick-draw” position.

“I have carried it on the floor when I’m going from here to someplace” other than his Capitol office, Bowler said, because he needs protection outside the Capitol.

“There are people out there who would like to see me hurt,” Bowler said, “not just politically but people I dealt with in my old life” as a law enforcement officer.

Acting chief sergeant-at-arms in the Assembly, Ron Pane, said that although he did not know it until told by a reporter, he sees no danger in allowing Bowler to enter the chamber when armed.