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WALNUT CREEK (MCT) David LaTour rolled out of bed on a recent Saturday morning and prepared for a leisurely lunch: Wallet, check. Car keys, check. Springfield XD 9 mm pistol and ammunition, check. Springfield XD 9 mm pistol and ammunition? The Hayward, Calif., resident is a member of an organization slowly gaining membership in the Bay Area. Open Carry aims to make it possible for Americans in every state to legally carry loaded guns in pub- lic. The loosely organized Bay Area chapter is ignit- ing powerful feelings among law enforcement agencies, gun control advocates and residents. "I do it to defend myself and my rights. Carrying guns can pre- vent burglaries and assaults," LaTour said. The San Jose State engineering student meets in public places with fellow members of the group, who all display holstered unloaded pis- tols. Open Carry advocates rely on a section in the California Penal Code that prohibits concealed weapons. It states that "guns carried openly in belt holsters are not con- cealed." It is legal to do so as long as the group or individual is 1,000 feet away from a K-12 school. "I have a right to bear arms under the Constitu- tion," LaTour said as he settled into a chair at Peet's Coffee & Tea near Whole Foods in San Ramon with his unloaded Springfield in a holster on one hip and ammo on the other. Five other armed Bay Area Open Carry members and other unarmed friends joined him. Many Peet's patrons clearly were disturbed when the Open Carry group walked in. "I'm scared. I'm get- ting out of here," said Steve Atkinson, a Pleasanton resident who was joined by his wife, Petra, as he sipped a cap- puccino. "They say they want to make a statement. What's wrong with a T- shirt?" he asked. "It makes me nervous big time," added San Ramon resident Azadeh Shenas. "What if there's a car crash, people are arguing and one shoots the other?" Not everyone was upset. Ten-year-old Lottie Goddard walked up to the group with the encour- agement of her father, Andy, and mother, Sammy. "My Uncle Ray is going to teach me to shoot a gun for my 11th birthday," she declared. The Second Amend- ment to the U.S. Consti- tution gives citizens the right to bear arms. How- ever, California's consti- tution does not, and the state has some of the tightest gun restrictions in the country. It is against the law to openly carry a loaded gun in public, and it is difficult to get a permit to carry a concealed firearm in many counties. "Often, the police don't realize it's our legal right to openly carry an unloaded gun in Califor- nia," said Open Carry member Jon Schwartz, of Livermore, at the recent coffee klatch. While law enforce- ment agencies recognize that right, they still cau- tion against the dangers of its practice, San Mateo County Sheriff's Lt. Ray Lunny said. "Open carry advocates create a potentially very dangerous situation," he said. "When police are called to a 'man with a gun' call, they typically are responding to a situa- tion about which they have few details other than that one or more people are present at a location and are armed. Officers have no idea that these people may simply be 'exercising their rights.' "Should the gun-carry- ing person ... move in a way that could be con- strued as threatening, the police are forced to respond in kind for their own protection. It's well and good in hindsight to say the gun carrier was simply 'exercising their rights,' but the result could be deadly," Lunny said. "I think that's a little bit over the top," said Walter Stanley, an Open Carry member from Liv- ermore who carries a Springfield XD. Law enforcement offi- cials should have policies on "man with a gun" calls as to whether it is a dan- gerous situation such as a man brandishing a gun in an argument or a man who is simply carrying a gun, he said. The group's tactics could lead to problems in a higher crime environ- ment, said Mike Sobek, a police officer and secre- tary of the statewide Peace Officers Research Association of California. "Tell (Open Carry members) to walk down International Boulevard and 72nd Avenue (in Oakland) and tell (people there) how normal it is to walk with a gun in open view. I don't think that would work. This is not 1892. It's not the wild, wild West anymore," he said. Should Open Carry succeed in its campaign to legalize publicly carry- ing loaded guns in Cali- fornia, the effect "is not likely to be either nirvana or the apocalypse," said Eugene Volokh, a UCLA law professor and author of books on constitutional law. Concealed weapons laws vary widely across the country. In the 1980s, about nine states issued concealed weapons licenses to individuals who passed a test. That number has grown to about 40 states, but mas- sive violence has not resulted, he said. Griffin Dix, a gun safety advocate who is not opposed to gun own- ership, questioned the wisdom of carrying weapons in public. He has been an advo- cate for gun safety ever since 1994, when his 15- year-old son was killed by a friend who was play- ing with a gun — not knowing a bullet remained in the chamber. The Kensington resi- dent is president of the Alameda County chapter of the Brady Campaign, an organization fighting to reduce gun violence. "The open carry peo- ple talk about their rights, and I don't want to take away their rights," Dix said. "But they just aren't trained to have a gun in public the way police are. Police get that training several times a year, and you still see tragic deaths happen because they're armed in public. I don't want to take anyone's guns away, but people should leave them at home." 6A – Daily News – Tuesday, January 26, 2010 Lic#381307 Clint Heiber & Russ Harman owners ALSCO, INC. 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The California Penal Code makes it a crime to carry a concealed weapon without a county-issued license, but it also says that firearms "carried openly in belt hol- sters are not concealed." In most cases, though, it is a crime to carry a loaded gun in a public place. In addition, people who reason- ably think there is an immediate, grave danger to them- selves or others, and that carrying the weapon can avert harm, may be allowed to carry the gun from the time law enforcement officials are called until they arrive. A person may have ammunition in a pocket away from the gun, and may even carry a speed loader, but carrying both ammunition and a gun is a crime if the two have direct contact. Violent felons and most of those on parole or proba- tion may not possess firearms in any circumstance. Although a law enforcement officer who sees some- one openly carrying a gun may stop that person to make sure the weapon is unloaded, the officer's rights to investigate further become problematic, San Mateo County assistant district attorney Morley Pitt said. "If the gun's not loaded, you can't make the person carrying it show you any ID, so there's no way of know- ing if this person might be on probation or parole, or if they have warrants out on them. You can't check the ser- ial number of the gun, so you don't know if it's been stolen," he said. It is illegal to possess guns of any sort within 1,000 feet of any public or private school from kindergarten through high school, under the Gun-Free School Zone Act of 1995. Unloaded firearms may not be carried at government meetings that are public. A person may keep a gun locked in the trunk of a vehicle and can arm himself if he thinks he is in grave danger from a person against whom he has a restrain- ing order. MCT photo Brad Huffman, left, and Adnan Shahab, right, carry their unloaded handguns into a Peet's Coffee & Tea store, Jan. 9, in San Ramon.