Hundreds Seek Concealed Weapons on Carona’s Pledge

Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona has not yet begun issuing permits for concealed weapons, but his campaign pledge to loosen the rules for them has prompted a flood of applications: 393 in the first three months of the year.

Carona vowed to approve more permits than his predecessor, Brad Gates. There are now 309 active permits for Orange County residents, Lt. Hector Rivera of the Sheriff’s Department said Thursday.

Carona’s pledge for a less restrictive policy stems partly from a controversial University of Chicago study that found serious crime decreases as concealed-weapons permits increase. The study sparked nationwide debate between those who believe crime is reduced when residents are armed and those who assert that carrying handguns leads to more homicides, suicides and accidental injuries or deaths.

“I don’t think that’s true,” Carona said of the latter theory. “I am keeping my campaign promise. I am setting up objective guidelines to try and take away any guesswork.”

Carona maintains that all those who qualify under state law should be able to get permits as long as they demonstrate need, display competency with the weapon after 16 hours of training and cover the cost of issuing the permit.

Nearly all applicants for permits turn in their forms to local police agencies, which, under Gates, had forwarded them to the Sheriff’s Department. While police have the option of deciding who gets permits, citizens have the right to appeal to the sheriff or go directly to the sheriff.

State law gives county sheriffs the authority to issue a concealed-weapons permit on condition that the person applying “is of good moral character, that a good cause exists for its issuance and that the person applying is a resident of the county or a city within the county.”

With a permit, a person may carry a revolver, which generally holds five or six rounds of ammunition, or a semiautomatic handgun, which can hold as many as 15 rounds.