Written by Reza Gostar The Desert Sun Mar. 8, 2014 32 Comments Concealed weapons: Reactions mixed over 'good cause' clause ruling Desert Hot Springs police Chief Bressler leads one of the most understaffed police departments in the Coachella Valley, a city struggling with gangs while it grapples with how to pay for public safety. / Crystal Chatham/The Desert Sun
From rusted six-shooters to semi-automatic weapons, hundreds of guns line the walls of a Desert Hot Springs police storage room. Some are waiting to be destroyed. Others are evidence in ongoing investigations. Nearly all came from criminals who got them illegally, Police Chief Dan Bressler said. Bressler leads one of the most understaffed police departments in the Coachella Valley, a city struggling with gangs while it grapples with how to pay for public safety. While crime has dropped compared to years past, the crime rate was more than double the national average in 2011, according to the FBI. There are a lot of gang members running around the Coachella Valley who are armed, and there are many law-abiding citizens that are concerned for their safety, Bressler said. I think it s time for us to issue concealed weapons licenses to the law-abiding people of this city, he said. I believe this will deter crime and help people feel safer. Desert Hot Springs crime scene investigator Terry Sherman works in an evidence room surrounded by confiscated guns on Feb. 26. / Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun California has the most gun-restrictive laws in the country, but last month the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the good cause component to carry a concealed weapon in a San Diego County case. For example, a domestic violence victim who fears for her life might be granted good cause due to an imminent threat of violence, or a lawyer who deals with violent criminals. In the ruling, a three-member panel made up of two Republicans and a Democrat found that a responsible, law-abiding citizen has a right under the Second Amendment to carry a firearm in public for self-defense. However, California Attorney General Kamala Harris and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence moved to appeal, asking that the ruling be reviewed by a full 11-judge panel. Local law enforcement must be able to use their discretion to determine who can carry a concealed weapon, Harris said. I will do everything possible to restore law enforcement s authority to protect public safety.
On Wednesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also found Yolo County s good cause requirement unconstitutional. Experts on both sides say the issue probably is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Rising demand for gun permits Some sheriffs in the state aren t waiting around for the legal wrangling. In Orange County, Sheriff Sandra Hutchens immediately loosened the concealed-carry permit requirements, and there was a flood of nearly 1,000 applicants. The demand is so great that on Tuesday she was given $1.5 million by the Board of Supervisors to help process the applications. Ventura County has also dropped the good cause requirement and has seen an increase in permit applicants. In Riverside County, there were 771 civilians with active concealed weapons permits in 2013 out of a population of more than 2.25 million people, according to sheriff s spokesman Sgt. Mike Manning. Of those, 525 were approved in 2013. The county received eight applications immediately following the court ruling. The sheriff s department could not immediately specify how many of those were held by Coachella Valley residents. In addition to the sheriff s department, Coachella Valley residents can request permits through any city police department except in Desert Hot Springs. Former Desert Hot Springs police Chief Walter McKinney started deferring permit requests to the sheriff s department in 2006, after then-mayor Alex Bias applied for one. Bias said his dog was poisoned, his truck broken into and he was getting threatening phone calls. The last thing we need in Desert Hot Springs is Mayor turns up missing, he said at the time. On Friday, Bias said he never got the permit.
The number of people with licenses to carry handguns in public varies among California s 58 counties. Though there are some exceptions, a Desert Sun analysis of data provided by the Calguns Foundation, a pro-gun group, shows higher concentrations of concealed carry permits in rural counties and where the majority voted for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the 2012 election. In 2010, the latest data available, there were 2,935 firearm deaths in California when the population was 37.2 million, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number includes unintentional and violent deaths. That is a rate of 7.8 deaths per 100,000. The same year in Arizona, a state with much more liberal gun control laws, there were 931 deaths in a population of 6.3 million. That rate is 14.5 deaths per 100,000. Each night after closing Sidewinder Grill, a country-themed restaurant he s owned for 22 years in Desert Hot Springs, Angelo Avramidis walks to the car carrying a loaded.38-caliber revolver. Avramidis doesn t need a concealed weapon permit to carry a gun on his property, but he d like to take it beyond the border of his parking lot, he said. Things are not getting any better, he said. I don t want to get robbed. I want to feel safe when I leave here at night all of us do. At Second Amendment Sports in Palm Desert, many of the 2,000 shooting club members also are encouraged by the court decision, said general manager Alex Talley. I know several people that are planning to apply now, Talley said as he watched people firing at paper targets resembling Osama bin Laden or Yasser Arafat. Seeing a glimmer of hope about getting our civil liberties back is getting everybody very excited. We have been talking about it since the news came out. Riverside County is very strict, he added. Many are frustrated by the fact that their civil liberties are infringed by the sheriff telling them their reason to have a weapon is not as important as the next guys, Talley said. 'A weighty decision' The rally for carrying guns in public is being spurred by gun manufacturers so there will be more sales and profit, said Ladd Everitt, spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
More citizens being armed isn t going to make citizens safer, he said, adding that Bressler s comments are an odd position for a police chief to take. Brandon Combs, executive director of The Calguns Foundation, said that he believes the state s attorney general, like anti-gun groups, is driven by ideology rather than the need to uphold the Constitution. She does not like gun rights, and she will do anything in her power to get in the way of these civil rights, he said. When you have more people carrying, it makes it harder for criminals to choose their targets, he added. Palm Springs police spokesman Harvey Reed said it s unknown if the court ruling will reduce crime. However, because of the potential of more individuals carrying concealed weapons, it may pose an officer safety issue, he wrote to The Desert Sun. There will be no change in their policy until the appeals process has run its course, he said. The same goes for Cathedral City and the Riverside County Sheriff s Department. We believe that most gun owners are responsible, law-abiding citizens. The law and process for owning guns in California is clear, and we will follow and enforce those laws, wrote Cathedral City police Capt. Chuck Robinson. He added that there already are people in the state who have concealed carry permits, but the majority of citizens most likely do not know that they are armed. In general, a criminal looks for easy targets. If a criminal believes that his target might be armed, he s going to move on or look for an easier target. Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff said he supports issuing permits to good citizens if they meet background and training qualifications and show a need. That view is the opposite of the recent court ruling. Like the Desert Hot Springs police chief, he said he generally believes that carefully trained, screened and responsible citizens carrying concealed handguns has a positive effect on reducing crime. However, he stressed that seeking a concealed weapons permit is a weighty decision by an individual, and it is also a weighty decision when the Sheriff s Department approves any CCW for an applicant, he wrote.
In Riverside County, we have a reasonable posture that follows state law, and one that we can defend to our entire community it is a very fair and balanced approach. More officers needed A self-described Libertarian, Bressler took over the position of Desert Hot Springs police chief in December after then-chief Kate Singer announced her retirement amid the city declaring a fiscal emergency. Several others also moved on, including two high-ranking commanders, because police salaries were cut more than 20 percent to save the city from bankruptcy The department has only 23 officers and Bressler is expecting more will leave for better pay in other cities. We are in the process of hiring 10 officers right now, Bressler said. We need all the help we can get. He s also now looking for volunteers with the proper experience to help with background checks, interviews and fingerprinting to help reinstitute concealed carry gun permits. Bressler, a soft-spoken Dodgers fan who grew up in Orange County, lives in the city with his wife, Erin, and three children, ages 5, 9 and 11. I have a more sense of security when I m armed than when I am not, Bressler said about when he s out of uniform. It gives more sense of comfort. If something horrible did happen, I would at least have a chance. Robert Hopwood, The Desert Sun s Content Producer/Interactives, contributed to this report.