El Paso County led state change on permits for concealed guns

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Mar 20, 2005 | by DENNIS HUSPENI THE GAZETTE

John Anderson thought he was simply keeping a campaign promise.

What the then-sheriff of El Paso County didn't know is that in making it easier for county residents to carry concealed handguns in 1995, he was helping set in motion a change in permit laws that would sweep the state -- and eventually became law.

"It was a huge risk, but I had every confidence it was the right direction," Anderson said.

The political newcomer and former Colorado Springs police sergeant, who had taken office a month earlier, unwittingly moved the debate over concealed handguns to the forefront of Colorado's political landscape.

That, many said, set the stage for other sheriffs to allow residents of their counties to apply for a permit.

Anderson's permit policy created a model for the state concealed- handgun permit law, enacted in 2003.

Although opponents of the new permit process warned there'd be blood in the streets -- shootings over parking spaces, for example - - that hasn't happened.

Proponents said it would make the streets of El Paso County safer. And although local police officials say violent crime has fallen four of the past five years -- mirroring a national trend -- it's impossible to attribute that trend to more concealedhandgun permit holders.

"El Paso County paved the way, no one can convince me otherwise," said Sheriff Terry Maketa, Anderson's successor.

Jim Groth thought 1,000 applications would easily cover the demand of people wanting the permits in February 1995.

Groth, a sergeant with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office and the new program's coordinator, vastly underestimated the demand.

"I asked Sheriff Anderson 'You think this will be enough?'" Groth said recently of the 1,000 permits he printed up initially. "We thought, 'No problem. This should last a couple of months.'

"They didn't last two hours.... It was like we were giving out free money."

Residents lined up in the rain outside the Sheriff's Office on Feb. 23, 1995, to get a permit application. Officials handed out more than 4,000 applications in the next month.

Next thing Anderson knew, he was getting calls from Time magazine; news organizations from Canada, Japan and England; the three major news networks; and most major Colorado newspapers.

"It really surprised me that there was that much interest," Anderson said.

In the first full year of the program, sheriff's officials processed and issued 3,137 permits. Of those, 1,674 are still active.

It was, by far, the most permits issued in the nine years that followed.

The current coordinator, J. Fromme, said that in the previous decade, 147 permits have been revoked. The reasons for those revocations include:

people moving without notifying the sheriff.

convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol.

domestic violence-related restraining orders or convictions.

"The number of revocations is extremely small," said George Epp, former Boulder County sheriff and current executive director of the County Sheriffs of Colorado Inc. "That's evidence the process is working... There's been good background checks."

Today, there are 5,678 permitholders in El Paso County. That means just about 1 percent of the estimated 530,000 county residents have them.

Before Anderson took over, only 34 people had concealedhandgun permits. That's because the sheriff at the time -- like all county sheriffs in Colorado -- required the applicant to prove a "compelling need" to get a permit.

Only three permit holders proved that need -- basically that their lives were in jeopardy. The rest of the permitholders were retired police or military.

Anderson wanted to shift the responsibility from the citizens having to prove they needed a permit to the government stating why citizens shouldn't have a permit to carry a concealed handgun.

"We knew the responsibility we were placing on" permit holders, Groth said. "If something went wrong, they would look bad. The Sheriff's Office would look bad, and the program would have looked bad."

As long as applicants were 25 years or older, had no felony or violent crime convictions, weren't addicted to alcohol or drugs, could prove they were proficient with a firearm, and put down the fee -- they were granted a permit.

Maketa, who worked under Anderson in 1995, said his former boss "cracked the wall and broke down a stereotype that people with concealed weapons had ulterior motives."

"After a short period of time," Maketa said, "we recognized the benefit and value of trusting law-abiding citizens" to have a permit.

Of course, there were vocal opponents.

One, Anderson's former boss and then-Colorado Springs Police Chief Lorne Kramer, said at the time that the liberalized permit policy was the wrong way to go.

He worried about inconsistent standards from county to county. He worried about his officers contacting people with concealed handguns.

"Introducing more guns into a society that already has too much gun violence isn't in the best interest of the public," Kramer said in 1995.

Kramer, now the Colorado Springs city manager, still thinks more guns aren't the answer to a safer society. But he's changed his mind about the El Paso County concealedgun permit policy.