Posted on 02/10/2003 10:57:02 AM PST by 45Auto
More than 700 Yuba-Sutter residents have permits to carry concealed handguns - and that's just fine with local sheriffs.
In Yuba County, 293 people have permits. The total in Sutter County is 416.
Yuba County's latest batch of would-be pistol-packers recently finished a required eight-hour course offered by Yuba College.
They still face a background check and interview at the Sheriff's Department before they can legally go out in public with a snub-nosed .38 in a shoulder holster or a pink-handled .22 semiautomatic tucked in a purse.
Law enforcement officials in both counties said they support citizens' right to carry weapons and can't recall crimes where someone used a legal concealed weapon. Having to revoke a permit is a rare occurrence, they said.
Yuba County Sheriff Virginia Black defended the longstanding California law that allows qualified citizens to carry hidden guns. When "bad guys" don't know who's carrying, crime is deterred, Black said.
Besides, citizens have a legal right to defend themselves, and in today's violent world, anyone can become a victim, she said.
The sheriff said she can recall only one near-crime involving a legal concealed weapon. About 20 years ago, a Marysville man intervened in a domestic situation and pointed his gun at a man beating a woman, resulting in the loss of his permit to carry. The sheriff said she decided just recently to reissue the permit.
Applicants for concealed gun permits are required to take eight hours of education and training. In Yuba County, by order of the sheriff, that means applicants take the Yuba College course taught by Neal Brookman, a retired Yuba City police sergeant. The cost is $50. The permit costs $110.
Brookman said he starts the one-day course with classroom work, focusing on when it's permissible under the law to use deadly force in self-defense. A threat must be immediate - not someone across the street with a knife, he said.
Although it's not directly related to the concealed gun issue, waking up in the middle of the night and finding a stranger in the house is the classic situation where someone might reach for a gun. But that in itself is not reason enough to shoot, Brookman said. There has to be "some type of confrontation" - not necessarily involving being threatened with a weapon - or an assumption that the stranger is there for the purpose of violence, Brookman tells his students.
"We emphasize common sense," he said.
In the afternoon, students go to the Sheriff's Department firing range at the Yuba County Airport to prove they can safely handle their weapon and hit a target at least 80 percent of the time. They don't have to be expert enough "to hit a gnat in the eye at 100 yards," he said.
Brookman said previous firearms experience is not a course prerequisite, although he's never had a student who hasn't had at least some.
Since he started teaching the course in 1997, about 25 percent of students have been women, he said.
After successfully completing the course, applicants are asked in a sheriff's department interview why they feel a need to carry a gun. They're also fingerprinted and undergo a criminal background check. No one with a felony conviction gets a permit, Brookman said. A misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence or battery also can disqualify a candidate, he said.Black said she is more likely to grant a permit to someone who has a general concern about personal safety than a person who's upset about a specific threat to his or her safety.
She doesn't recommend that people carry a gun or keep one in the home if they aren't prepared to use it. Otherwise, a criminal might end up taking the gun and using it against them, she said. Husbands often urge their wives to carry guns, she said.
In Sutter County, the initial eight-hour course is given by rod and gun club members who belong to the National Rifle Association or by Yuba City gun dealers, said Undersheriff Bill Grove.
Gun permits are not issued to anyone on probation. A domestic violence or battery conviction may or may not disqualify an applicant, depending on how recent it is, Grove said.
Applicants are interviewed by the Sutter County Sheriff's Department support services commander, whose decision in a particular case may involve a certain amount of subjectivity, Grove said.
"The (applicant) has to be of good moral character. We try to get a feeling for what their intentions are," he said.
Applicants often carry money or valuables in connection with their businesses, he said.
Grove estimated the department revokes one permit a year, usually when the holder commits a felony or is involved in a bar fight.
State law prohibits anyone who has any alcohol in their system from carrying a gun, according to Black.
Interesting take on the old myth.
Good grief, what was he supposed to do, let the guy beat her? In Washington state he could have shot the b@stard.
Why is this simple bit of common sense so difficult for liberals to comprehend?
How nice of the Sheriffs to be fine with me exercising MY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT
WTF?! A "reasonable need" must be articulated, but those who have nebulous feelings about safety get permits and those with specific threats do not? As usual for Kalifornistan, this is completely backwards. (Assuming the State should have any basis for denials in the first place, which I disagree with.)
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