Senate Committee Defeats Bill to Ease Concealed-Weapons Rules

Raising the specter of Wild West justice at the end of a gun barrel, police chiefs and sheriffs helped defeat a bill Tuesday that would have made it easier for law-abiding citizens to carry concealed firearms.

At the conclusion of a raucous hearing of the Senate Criminal Procedure Committee, during which a witness warned that blood would be on the hands of members who voted against it, the Assembly-passed bill got only one favorable vote and five no votes.

The action of the Democratic-controlled committee represented another in a series of Senate defeats of pet legislation sponsored by the new Assembly Republican majority. The bill was the top legislative priority of the National Rifle Assn.

The bill (AB 638) by Assemblyman William J. “Pete” Knight (R-Palmdale)--which was approved by the Assembly in January--would have made licenses to carry guns concealed in clothing or a car available to virtually any citizen who could legally purchase a handgun.

Currently, the licenses are issued at the discretion of police chiefs and sheriffs to people they believe have “good cause” for secretly arming themselves. The NRA and other critics contend that the permits are handed out to political friends, while average citizens are denied the same protection.

Insisting that police are spread too thin to protect Californians against criminals, Knight told the committee that “honest, law-abiding citizens are the answer, not the problem.”

He said a similar 9-year-old law in Florida has contributed to a fall in the crime rate there. More than 300,000 permits had been issued to Floridians by the start of 1996 and only 57 had been revoked for criminal activity, none involving murder, Knight said.

But a long parade of witnesses representing Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, police, crime victims organizations and gun control advocates argued that easier availability of gun permits increases the potential for Old West-style shootouts.

“The citizens of this state do not want a return to the Tombstone era, when disputes were settled, not by rational discussion, but by who had the quickest draw,” said Police Chief Larry Todd of Los Gatos, president of the California Police Chiefs Assn.

“There are no shootouts on the corner” in Florida, Knight responded.

One of his witnesses, Edgar Suter, a San Ramon physician who said he legally carries a concealed firearm, got into a shouting match with state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), when he suggested that urban sheriffs and police chiefs singled out “white, affluent, politically connected males” for gun permits and that they discriminated against minorities.

He said if the bill to expand access to gun permits is defeated, then “the next preventable death is on your conscience.”

Watson, who represents minority neighborhoods of South-Central Los Angeles, scolded Suter for raising the issue of race and for what she said was his “demeaning” testimony against police.

“I will never, ever vote for the relaxation of gun controls,” she said.