Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 18, 1995 TAG: 9506200055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
COME July 1, practically any law-abiding Virginia resident will be able to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
But in this part of state, getting a permit hasn't been much of a problem anyway.
A 69-year-old Pulaski County man applied for, and got, a permit because he sometimes has to pick his son up from work late at night.
Two Radford University professors cited concerns about encountering rabid animals while hiking when they applied for renewal of their permits.
A Montgomery County man said he needed a concealed weapon to protect himself and his fiancee when they wore their Rolex watches while visiting Roanoke and Richmond.
In 1994, 94 percent of people who applied in 10 localities in the Roanoke and New River valleys were granted permits.
The General Assembly approved the relaxed concealed weapon laws this past winter amid complaints that judges were wielding too much power and arbitrarily deciding who got a permit.
Applicants had to say why they needed the permit and often were denied with little or no comment, according to advocates of the looser laws.
State Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, who co-sponsored the bill, said he knew there wasn't a problem in this region. But, he said, he kept getting calls from "people's cousins and everybody else" from outside the region who were having trouble getting a permit.
He said one man from Roanoke called him frequently to complain about the thousands of dollars he had spent appealing a denial. "I just felt we needed to have some consistency statewide," Goode said.
Starting next month, applicants no longer will have to say why they need a permit. A criminal background check still will be required, though, and applicants must be able to show they are experienced with handguns.
Some law enforcement and courthouse workers eye July 1 with dread, while others welcome it, saying it will provide a uniform yardstick for judges.
Bob Colvin, who spent almost two decades in law enforcement, thinks the changes in the law will ensure consistency across the state.
"They wrote a bill the judges could all read the same," he said.
Colvin, 39, lives in Chesterfield County. He has been a sheriff's deputy in Montgomery County, executive director of the Virginia State Crime Commission, and a commissioner on the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board - a post he lost in February when Gov. George Allen replaced him. He now runs a governmental relations and management consulting firm.
One week before his ABC job ended, Colvin applied for a concealed weapon permit. He studied the statute and submitted an application that detailed his work history; he also included letters and character references from top state officials and evidence that he was proficient with weapons. He wrote on the application that, because of his career in law enforcement, he needed a gun for his safety.
His application was denied. The judge said he didn't meet the requirements outlined by state law, Colvin said.
"When I was denied, I was shocked, I guess.... Not that I was anybody special, [but] if somebody with those qualifications couldn't get one ... I was surprised they'd ever issued any."
Colvin appealed and came before the judge for a hearing. He simply reiterated the remarks on his application, he said - and he got the permit.
Courthouse workers and lawyers across Southwest Virginia say some judges denied permits on first review so applicants would appeal and come to court to show how serious they were about getting one.
"I have no problem with people jumping through a few hoops to get one. Those safeguards ought to be there," Colvin said. "But once that's done, I think the judges ought to follow the law."
Kenneth Devore, who retired last year as a Circuit Court judge in the New River Valley, said he doesn't like the new law. "They're taking it away from the judiciary," who used a lot of common sense in making their decisions, Devore said.
He looked for every reason he could to deny a permit, he said - but "not to be hateful or arbitrary." Rather, he said, it was because "those guns can get people killed."
He said he always advised people he turned down that they had a right to appeal. He also made sure they knew a concealed weapon permit wasn't always necessary.
"I reminded them they could have one on the front seat" next to them in a car, as long as it wasn't concealed.
Clerks in Roanoke Circuit Court say the number of applications for concealed weapon permits went up in January and February, when the bill relaxing the law began to receive publicity.
By last week, 29 people had applied for permits in Roanoke. The total for all of 1994 was 23.
In Salem, where five permits were granted in 1994, six people have applied this year.
Montgomery County, which had 51 applicants last year, had received only 14 applications through mid-May.
Capt. Bob Strickler of the Franklin County Sheriff's Office said there has been a run on applications for permits recently. He thinks it's because of publicity about the new state law.
"It's not a big deal until something like that occurs," he said.
While the new law doesn't go into effect until July 1, people are readying themselves for the application process or getting their applications in early.
Bedford Police Chief Milton Graham said one or two people a day have been coming into his office asking to be fingerprinted - part of the requirements for applying. He said he's dreading July 1.
"We're going to have an armed camp in Virginia, it looks like," Graham said. "I'm just frustrated."
Other police chiefs and sheriffs also look to next month with concern - although their fears were allayed somewhat by a "saloon law" that forbids permit holders to take their weapons into bars. Police were fearful that barroom brawls would turn deadly if patrons chugging cold beers also were packing heat.
But supporters of the new law say an increasingly armed citizenry does not necessarily mean more problems for police.
Joe Painter, a Montgomery County lawyer who has a concealed weapon permit, points to studies in Florida, which liberalized its gun laws in 1987. Painter said there is no evidence that less restrictive concealed weapon laws there have led to increased violent crime.
According to Gun Owners of America, a Springfield-based group, only 18 of more than 258,000 concealed weapon permit holders in Florida have used their guns to commit crimes.
But researchers at the University of Maryland's Violence Research Group released a study earlier this year that said more people were killed with guns after concealed weapon laws were relaxed in four of five urban areas they examined.
The study looked at homicides by gun and other means in Jacksonville, Miami and Tampa, Fla.; Jackson, Miss.; and Portland, Ore.
Average monthly homicides by gun increased 74 percent in Jacksonville, 43 percent in Jackson, 22 percent in Tampa and 3 percent in Miami. Portland had a 12 percent decrease.
The study found that, while homicides by gun increased after the less restrictive laws were adopted, homicides by other means remained steady.
Painter's statements are backed up in this region by law enforcement officers such as Franklin County Sheriff's Lt. Ewell Hunt, a 20-year veteran who said he cannot recall one crime that involved someone who held a concealed weapon permit.
Colvin, the former Crime Commission director, notes that "former police officers are very quick to believe they ought to have a concealed weapon permit [but are] really quick to question why others would need one."
Why shouldn't equally law-abiding citizens - particularly fearful crime victims - be granted one? he asked.
"I see some of a double standard that I don't like."
Who's packing heat, or wants to?
Doctors, retired policemen, store owners, professors, some members of boards of supervisors. Wives of police officers and firefighters who often are home alone. Older people with health problems. They need it for personal protection, they say, because they're afraid of being harmed before police can come to their rescue.
Like Linus' blanket, just the knowledge that the gun is there provides a sense of security.
James Campbell Wolfe has an open heart - and a gun to protect it.
The 51-year-old Roanoke County man applied for a permit in July after having open heart surgery. His breast bone didn't heal properly, leaving his heart vulnerable.
"If someone hit me in the chest, it would really hurt me," Wolfe said. "I don't feel as secure as I used to, because I'm not as able-bodied as I was."
Roanoke County Circuit Judge Kenneth Trabue granted Wolfe permission to carry one of his three handguns out of public view.
But Wolfe says the permit doesn't give him a license to kill.
"If I could run away, I would, even if I had a gun in my pocket," he said. "I'm not one of those gun nuts who says 'Oh, I'd shoot this or that.' I don't want to shoot another human being."
Wolfe practices handling his weapons at On Target, a shooting range on Shenandoah Valley Avenue Northeast in Roanoke.
"I'm not a gun nut, but I do like guns. I don't see any harm in a responsible person having a gun," Wolfe said.
While the concealed weapon bill was being debated in the General Assembly, supporters produced a document from the state police showing the number of permits granted from July 1993 through December 1994.
Clerks are required to send information on permits to the state police, but Roanoke and Alexandria figures weren't included in the document, and the information about localities that were listed was often wrong.
According to the list, for example, Wytheville judges granted only two permits during the 18-month period. In fact, 23 were granted in 1994 alone. And according to the list shown the General Assembly, Pulaski granted only 12 permits, when 44 actually were granted in 1994.
"We enter what we get," said Capt. Lewis Vass of the state police records management division in Richmond. He expects record-keeping to increase under the new law.
Even though all but 6 percent of applicants in the Roanoke and New River valleys were given permits, there is some evidence that people in similar circumstances were treated differently.
A Montgomery County man active on local government boards got a permit after he said he feared traveling through dangerous areas in the state while visiting manufacturers. There's little help available on the interstate, he said, and he felt vulnerable to carjackings.
A Christiansburg fast-food manager who makes night deposits and sometimes travels alone was denied a permit. So was a Montgomery County paving contractor who wrote in his application that he didn't drink, smoke or use drugs and that he lived at home with his mother.
Beyond Southwest Virginia, denials and delays in getting permits were common, according to supporters of the new law. While Roanoke Valley and New River Valley judges were granting 94 percent of the applications, judges in urban areas - especially in Northern Virginia - were granting only a handful.
The concealed weapon debate drew attention last year when a Clarke County judge denied Republican Senate candidate Oliver North's application to renew his concealed weapon permit. Renewals are supposed to be automatic unless there is a compelling reason not to grant them.
North said he needed the permit for protection from terrorist attack.
The judge, a Democratic appointee who granted North's original permit, denied the renewal "on the ground that the applicant is not of good character."
North was convicted of three felony charges for his role in the Iran-Contra operation. The convictions were overturned on appeal.
North did not appeal the permit denial, according to the Clarke County Circuit Court clerk's office.
"The problems were spotty all over the state," said Tom Evans, a lobbyist for the Virginia Firearms Dealers Association. "It's patchwork quilt."
Evans thinks the burst of interest in getting a concealed weapon permit will subside.
"People are generally attracted by any new situation they consider to be novel," Evans said. "Actual applications won't be as numerous as the inquiries."
Glenn Nester, who operates G&G Gun Shop in Christiansburg, agrees. Despite meeting state and federal requirements to be a licensed dealer, he got his concealed weapon permit only after appealing a denial.
Nester said he has had lots of people come to his Roanoke Street shop to ask about the new law, but few are buying weapons. He thinks it still will be tough for people to get a permit.
"This will blow over. I don't think we'll see a lot of additional people apply ... unless we can't control some of our crime areas."
John Westmoreland applied for a concealed weapon permit last year after the Christiansburg pizza shop where he worked was robbed. His application was denied.
Thirteen of 16 people who were initially denied permits in Montgomery County appealed and were granted permits. Westmoreland, who mentioned he was going through a divorce in his application, didn't appeal.
He has left the pizza business and now works for First Union bank. He sees no need to reapply, even with the looser rules that are coming. He may change his mind later.
"I'm not the type of person who wants to be the first to try to do something," he said.
Boyce Osborne will be among the first in line to get a permit. After living eight years on Country Club Drive in Northwest Roanoke, Osborne no longer believes he is safe in his own home.
"I can sit right here in my living room and hear gunshots," Osborne said. "If I'm sitting inside my house, with the doors shut and the windows closed, and I can hear shots, that's not a good feeling."
Osborne applied for a concealed weapon permit and cited living in a high-crime area as his reason. A judge denied Osborne's request, saying he had not demonstrated a need for a concealed weapon.
Chief M. David Hooper wrote in a report filed with the application, "The mere fact of living on Country Club Drive, or any other particular address in Roanoke, should not, in itself, demonstrate a need to carry a concealed weapon."
If people such as Osborne are concerned about living in crime-ridden neighborhoods, nothing prevents them from keeping a gun in their home, Hooper wrote.
But Osborne, 42, said that would not have helped him the time he was threatened in the parking lot of a grocery store near his home, or in other cases when he believes trouble is lurking nearby.
Osborne said he plans to reapply when the new law goes into effect. But the long application process has left him disillusioned with the system.
"You know and I know that there are criminals out there on the streets carrying guns," he said. "They get caught, and nothing happens to them."
Wolfe, the Roanoke County man who got his concealed weapon permit after heart surgery, cautions that with the permit to carry comes responsibility.
"When you fire your gun at someone, it's not a puppy you run over or some other animal in the road. It's a human being," he said.
by CNB