Law-Forums.org

[parnell]

There are no concealed carry permits in the CIty of Los Angeles unless you are politically connected. Chief Charlie Beck of the Los Angeles Police Department is in fact also the President of Handgun Control Inc. for the City, and was their keynote speaker at their last convention in Las Vegas. During his speech, he bragged about the fact that Los Angeles has nearly 4 million people and he has only issued about 200 gun carry permits. Los Angeles County is much the same way. Los Angeles County is the largest by population in the nation (10 million) yet anti gun Sheriff Lee Baca has only issued approximately 500 gun carry permits.

Los Angeles is a strange place. If you drive outside of the city, you can buy any gun you like and take it back into Los Angeles (except .50 caliber centerfire rifles or pistols or assault weapons that hold more than ten shots). There is only one handgun selling gunshop in Los Angeles...Turner's Outdoorsman in Reseda. There is a ten day waiting period for guns, you need a safe or you have to buy a gun lock for your gun., handguns require a $25 license that requires you pass a 20 question safety test. I usually get a 20 out of 20 on the test, and it is good for five years. You can have all the guns you want, but you have to keep them HOME or on your PRIVATE PROPERTY. Home owners and business owners who kill strangers who try to break in don't get any grief from the police.

So. I am a teacher. Obviously, I need a summer job. I live in Echo Park, a ghetto of Los Angeles. It is the only neighborhood I could afford to buy a house. I plan on saving my money and trading up. So I work summer jobs. So I am a late night (til 1:30 am) liquor store clerk in an area that is the border of the meanest gang in Los Angeles (Mara Salvatrucha Trece..MS-13) and the biggest gang in Los Angeles, 18th Street Gang (20,000 in Los Angeles, 50,000 nationwide). It's a bad area. The police helicopter is overhead all night long most nights. You can hear gunshots and sirens at night. I am NOT going to win any fistfights. I am five foot four, 112 pounds, and due to a chronic birth defect that surgery went wrong for, I have very little upper body strength right now. So I carry a gun. My brother is a retired/disabled Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy. He has a very bad auto immune disease that makes it impossible to work any more. He loaned me his off duty weapon, a Smith & Wesson Model 60 Stainless Steel .38 Special Chief's Special. He had the hammer bobbed and put on a Pachmayr black rubber grip. The gun looks like it was taken off the Maine in Havana harbor (salt air, he lived in Huntington beach, and bought the gun way back when he became a deputy. He is 13 years older than me, and I am 35. He gave me a box of 30 year old Law Enforcement Only Federal +P 110 grain controlled expansion bullets that his department used to use before they switched to semi automatics, and two five shot Safariland speed loads. You don't have to twist anything, just push hard. I keep the gun in the big front pocket of my hoodie. So. I don't walk down. I don't want to get jumped walking home at 2:00 AM. I can't drive my car down. This is illegal alien central, with two familes to a house, and little to no available parking on the street at night. Most people have to park a long way from where they live. So I take a 49 cc Motor Scooter down, and park it right behind the liquor store, in a fenced in area where the owner stores boxes and whatnot. I come down in daylight, so I am not scared. When I drive down, my gun is unloaded, with a gun lock on the trigger, in my backpack. I have this small lockable box, that is the size of a 3" x 5" card file that is lockable with a small lock. I put the bullets in the little box. You could break the box by just stomping on it, or a strong man with his bare hands, but hey, it's locked. All this is in my backpack. I come to work, park my scooter in the back, come up front. As soon as the owner leaves, I unlock, load, and pull out my gun and speed loaders out of the back pack and stick them in my hoodie pocket. All set. If a scary person comes into the shop, I keep one hand on the .38. Here's the problem. Going home. The store has a safe, and those big anti burglar metal things that you pull out of the side and lock into a metal track set into the sidewalk. I have to go outside all by myself and lock up the front. I am scared of being jumped. Then I have to go out back to this dark, dark, alley in back, unlock the gate, and drive my scooter out, and then lock the gate and leave. I am scared of being jumped, so I keep my gun loaded in my hoodie. It is a really short drive home, so this far, I just drive home with the gun loaded with two speed loaders in my front hoodie pocket. This is not good, because the cops in this neighborhood stop anything strange looking. So how or when do I unload my gun to drive home

[garbhach65]

Too verbose. Cut to the chase.

[jan46]

Too verbose. Cut to the chase.

Your situation is pretty dismal as far as your safety goes. You a handicapped individual working in the worst section of the entire state in which you live, at the worst time of day to be working, in the worst business to be employed, surrounded by the most dangerous gangs to exist, defending yourself with a corroded gun, 30 year old bullets and (my guess) absolutely no training of any sort. Not to mention you drive in indefensible vehicle and at casual glance, you look like a girl.

As a self-defense training company, I tell my students that if your only defense is a gun, you are doomed. Self-defense and safety start LONG before you pick up a pistol, and decisions must be made LONG before it is loaded.

Eventually, you will be robbed or assaulted. You know this as well as I do. The only question is 'In what condition will this leave you?'.

As to your original question, I defer to the police department. You are asking a question that no one here can answer because no one here will be the one you interact with if you are stopped. Go to the source. Set up a meeting with an officer and lay out your situation. This establishes you as a "good guy" and introduces you to someone with answers AND a name. Invaluable.

As to other suggestions, keep the scooter in the store. Stay out of that alley and back lot. After dark, that should be a "no go" zone.

Your choice of jobs, locations, living areas are poor. Note, I mean no insult, just stating a fact. Again, look at my summary of your situation. If you choose to live in this area rather than move, or work in a liquor store at night instead of somewhere with many people, you have to accept the risks associated with those choices. The acceptability of those risks is up to you as far as if they are worth the rewards. IMO, no, they are not.

Good luck and be safe as you can.

NOTED: Thanks for your service Tafkan. I was referring more to civilian self-defense and safety.

[colfre]

move

[delton]

Newell. Eco Park is an art neighborhood now days it has been cleaned up a lot.Rich hipster's move there because it is close to Hollywood . If you feel unsafe do what you feel you need to do! Are you more afraid of jail or your safety? As another poster recommended do not make your self into a victim.Working at the store the regulers will get to know you and you will get to know them.Working at the store is not as dangerous as you make it sound.

[condan]

.25 ACP? "Stop-and-frisk"? Butt crack? Ring a bell?

[mace]

Go buy a nice, large, heavy frame long barrel 357mag or 44mag pistol like the Ruger Redhawk or S&W 29 and open carry. Carry a copy of the 'US Pocket Constitution'. When the police stop you - ask them if they took an oath to 'uphold the United States Constitution and defend it from all enemies, foreign or domestic'. When they say 'Yes' - point out the Second Ammendment.

After you have been arested, processed, charged, and post bail on what ever charges they bring - contact the local FBI and press a civil rights violation against all the officers that arrested and processed you.

LA is basically 4 million sheeple. All it takes is one person to bring those laws to the attention of the Supreme Court and they would be history. You can do for all of California what Heller did for all of the USA.

You have a case. You are in the right place, at the right time - you could make a difference.

[lazaro94]

I answered this before. You can not carry a gun in California without breaking the law.
Suggest you relocate out here into the Real America, where we still have some Rights left.

[gervaso81]

TDM is right. You have been saying for years now how you get around LA with a concealed handgun, avoiding detection even when being frisked. You should be fine.

I love how you put yourself in these horrible positions. I have to get a summer job, and it has to be in the worst part of town, it must be at the worst possible time, and I can't take my car, and I have to look different to the police....

Oh, and I have to use the gun my brother gave me, and the 30 year old ammo, and I can't possibly use something else, not even my 25acp....

I don't see how the guy who has bragged about going armed through LA now has to ask us how to travel about armed in LA.