THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 13, 1995 TAG: 9512120098
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JODY R. SNIDER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ISLE OF WIGHT LENGTH: Long : 201 lines
FOR STEPHEN D. LISTER, the daily routine of strapping on a gun has become as natural as pulling on his pants.
He isn't a cop. He isn't a magistrate.
He's just an average citizen, a Smithfield resident who five months ago couldn't legally have carried a concealed weapon on the streets during his normal, day-to-day activities.
But all that changed July 1, when the state's new concealed-weapons law took effect, allowing virtually any Virginian 21 or older to carry a gun if he or she doesn't have a criminal record.
``The question is, how far are you willing to go to protect yourself?'' Lister says. ``My wife and I have made the commitment to go all the way - to protect ourselves with our lives.''
And the Listers have plenty of company.
Since the law took effect, the number of permits for concealed weapons has exploded in western Tidewater.
In Isle of Wight County, 120 permits were granted from July to Nov. 22, more than triple the 39 permits granted for all of 1994, according to figures from the county clerk's office.
In Suffolk, 353 permits were issued from July to Nov. 17, according to circuit clerk's office figures. Only nine were issued for all of 1994.
Many other applications have been made since late November but haven't been granted yet, Suffolk Circuit Court Clerk Henry C. Murden says.
``I don't know the answer as to why people are applying for gun permits. I guess they're just exercising the right that they didn't have before.''
And Murden says he expects the applications for gun permits to level off.
``I think it's dying off already.''
Under the old concealed-weapons law, applicants had to appear before a judge, who could deny the requests if applicants didn't offer convincing reasons to carry a gun.
That was the case with Lister. He says he's felt for a long time that he needed a handgun for protection. And he recalls an incident a few years ago, when as he waited in traffic, he says, two men jumped out of a car behind him, tried to open his car door and began pounding on his windows.
But he couldn't convince a judge he really needed to carry a gun.
The new law restricts the grounds judges have to deny a permit for a concealed weapon - and people like Lister are lining up to get them.
Even so, Murden and William E. Laine, Isle of Wight County's Circuit Court clerk, don't see the soaring spike in applications as a continuing trend, though both he and Murden do expect them to remain well above the yearly average of permits issued from 1990 through 1994. For Isle of Wight County, that average was 34, for Suffolk 16.
``I expect the number of applications to settle to between 75 to 100 a year,'' Laine says.
And, he adds, very few applications are denied.
That means there are a lot more people like Stephen Lister allowed to carry handguns in western Tidewater than perhaps ever before.
Lister carries his, a Colt .45 Commander, in a shoulder holster, usually when he is out with his family - including their 14-month-old daughter - or they are traveling, though he does not take it to work, he says.
``It's a natural for me to carry it. You should be serious about it if you're going to carry a concealed weapon.''
Many law enforcement officials in the area say they are alarmed over the number of applications being filed and permits issued.
``I don't like the law,'' Smithfield Police Chief Mark A. Marshall says. ``The fact that a person has gone through the steps to get a weapon gives me cause to think they might use it. Why else would they have it?''
Suffolk Police Chief Gilbert F. Jackson agrees.
``It's a no-win in this one. If guns are accessible, they might get used. But if you don't have a gun or knife in your pocket, you can't cut or shoot.''
Area law officers also say the new law will force them to be more cautious when dealing with average citizens because now anyone could be armed.
And society doesn't need more people toting guns on the streets and, in some cases, bringing them into the workplace, says Isle of Wight Commonwealth's Attorney W. Parker Councill.
``Yes! They will carry them,'' he says. ``You don't need a permit to keep one in your house. And I don't like the idea of a lot of people carrying concealed weapons on the streets. More guns means more people getting killed.''
Isle of Wight Sheriff C.W. Phelps says he also is concerned that people carrying concealed weapons might over-react in certain situations.
``You have to justify any use of a firearm,'' he says. ``There has to be a life-threatening situation to use a firearm. It's the same thing I tell my officers: They have to have no other means to defend themselves.''
But so far, Phelps says, shootings have not increased in the county or in Smithfield since the concealed-weapons law went into effect.
Neither, apparently, has there been an increase in Suffolk.
``It appears that the gun permits have had no effect on shooting situations in Suffolk,'' says Mike Simpkins, the Police Department's public information officer.
And then there's the matter of training. Or lack of it, according to critics who point out that only a minimum training course is required to obtain a permit.
Yet in many places like Isle of Wight County and Suffolk, no handgun training is even available, forcing applicants to take a hunter safety course to fulfill the legal requirement or to find a handgun course somewhere else.
Ask Murden or Laine where a handgun safety course is available, and all they can tell you is to ask a gun seller, like Bob Lewis. He offers a hunter safety course at his Carrollton Sportsman Shop in Carrollton, and he says many of those who took that course this year did it so they could get their concealed-weapons permits.
``As far as a person who has zero experience with handguns, this course is not adequate,'' Lewis says. ``There's just not enough time to go into depth about handguns. But the course does meet the legal requirement to obtain a permit.''
After asking several gun sellers, The Citizen was referred to Bob's Guns in Norfolk and A&P Arms in Virginia Beach. Each offers a three-hour handgun safety course, Bob's for $29.95, A&P for $35.
Lister, who works as an audio visual technician, also believes training is important. He says he shoots about 500 rounds a month.
``When you carry a gun, you carry the weight of responsibility. It's a sobering thing to carry a firearm. If I'm in a traffic situation and some guy cuts me off, I'm not going to yell at him - just because I have the responsibility of carrying a concealed weapon. I don't want to be put in any situation where I'd have to use my weapon.''
Clifford Gail Clow Jr. says he carries a gun while traveling at night.
``I don't want to be one of those people who break down on the interstate at night, and someone stops to help, shoots me and steals my car,'' the 22-year-old Suffolk resident says.
He got his permit after the new law went into effect in July. He'd tried to get one before but could offer no specific reason to carry a gun.
Another Suffolk resident, Yvonne W. Beasley, 46, also carries a gun while traveling alone at night and when transporting money. She is president of a small construction company. She recently renewed her gun permit.
``I would never go into a restaurant or a mall with a gun, although I know there are people who do that,'' she says. ``The problem is people did that before the permit law went into effect.''
And long before that law took effect, people carried guns for protection - just a lot fewer of them than now.
One of them is a 53-year-old Smithfield businessman, who spoke to The Citizen only on condition he not be named. He carried a handgun for many years while working as an antique-gun salesman in another state.
``There's been five incidents in my life where I've actually needed a gun.
``One time, I actually had to draw it. A man ran a stop sign, hit me, and then wanted to fight about it. There were five guys in his car, and they all got out, drunk. I was by myself, and I was carrying $30,000 in guns and $15,000 in cash. When I pulled that gun out, that ended the confrontation.
``They got back in the car.''
He blames what he calls the ``need'' for a concealed-weapons law on the judicial and penal systems.
``If crime and punishment were more balanced, there wouldn't be any need to carry guns - and this law wouldn't be so readily embraced by so many people.
``Our judicial and penal systems are a disgrace. They almost foster crime because of the lack of punishment. The permit law has finally given the normal citizen the ability to protect and defend himself without becoming a criminal to do it.''
However, law officials like Marshall argue that most crimes happen quickly - so quickly that there's no time to reach for a gun.
``Criminals are opportunists,'' Marshall says, ``and there's no time to get a gun when something does happen. The safe answer for citizens is to become more aware of their surroundings,'' to anticipate potentially dangerous situations and avoid them.
Isle of Wight Sheriff's Major David Cobb has done much of the fingerprinting for those applying for concealed-weapons permits.
``When they come in, if I know them, I ask: `Why do you want this?' Most of them say it's because it's their right. One of the problems with society today is that too many people believe incidents have to be resolved with guns.
``I've been in law enforcement 21 years, and I can count the times I've had to pull mine with less than the fingers I have on one hand.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
THE RUN ON GUNS
Stephen Lister family
``The question is, how far are you willing to go to protect
yourself? . . . I have made the commitment to go all the way.'' -
Stephen Lister.
``It's a no-win in this one. If guns are accessible, they might get
used. But if you don't have a gun or knife in your pocket, you can't
cut or shoot.'' - Suffolk Police Chief Gilbert Jackson.
``I don't like the idea of a lot of people carrying concealed
weapons on the streets.'' Commonwealth Attorney W. Parker Councill
``The fact that a person has gone through the steps to get a weapon
gives me cause to think they might use it.'' Police Chief Mark
Marshall
CONCEALED WEAPONS
VP Graphic
SOURCE: Suffolk Circuit Court clerk's office, Isle of Wight County
clerk's office
Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Concealed weapons can be as small as the palm of your hand. On July
1, the state law went into effect that allows virtually any
Virginian 21 or older to carry a gun if he or she doesn't have a
criminal record.
Suffolk resident Yvonne W. Beasley, 46, loads her gun before leaving
on a trip to Richmond. She recently renewed her gun permit.
KEYWORDS: HANDGUNS CONCEALED WEAPONS PERMIT by CNB