In his 44 years of police work, Marin County Sheriff Robert Doyle has never once fired his handgun in action.
As shocking as this may seem, according to Doyle it is not uncommon among police officers, as a majority nationwide have never discharged their firearm except at a shooting range.
That is not to say gun crime is unheard of in Marin County.
In 2009, the California Department of Justice reported 69 adult arrests and 32 juvenile arrests for weapons felonies in Marin.
According to Doyle, most of Marin’s gun ownership is concentrated in Marin City, and local police have had issues with the frequency of firearm use at bus stops and in public-housing.
In 2009, the most recent year in California Department of Justice records, Marin’s rate of weapon felony was 3.5 per 10,000 adult residents and 13.5 per 10,000 juvenile residents (aged 10-17).

Though Marin’s rate of arrests for weapon felonies is low, it exceeds the rates for San Francisco residents. Marin adults are arrested for weapon felonies seven times more frequently than San Francisco adults.
The same year, San Francisco saw 378 arrests for weapon felonies, a rate of .5 arrests per 10,000 adult residents and .2 arrests per 10,000 juvenile residents.
According to California DOJ records, guns are often used in other crimes as well. In 2011, 70 percent of homicides and 63 percent of robberies involved firearms. Additionally, gun  ownership is on the rise throughout the state.
California gun ownership in 2011 was at the second highest it’s been since the DOJ began tallying registrations in 1972. There are slightly over 600,000 guns legally registered in California – about one gun for every 62 residents – but Doyle said people with lawfully registered weapons are usually not the problem.
“The fact of the matter is that most gun crime – or I should say a very vast majority of gun crime – is committed by people who probably have those guns illegally and are obviously using them illegally,” Doyle said. “That’s why this whole gun issue is difficult, because people on both extremes are the ones that are pushing the middle to do something. Here you have the NRA that thinks there should be armed guards in schools and teachers should be armed, and volunteers should be armed, and then you have on the other spectrum that we should ban all guns.”
Doyle said he does not believe there is a reason for people to own automatic weapons or firearms with large magazines. He said he also supports California’s current policies of a required 10-day waiting period before purchasing a weapon and a mandatory background check.
In some states, citizens can apply for a Concealed Weapons Permit with almost guaranteed success. California, however, has a stringent set of requirements and guidelines that make it difficult to obtain one.
After completing an extensive application, passing psychological evaluations, and demonstrating good character, an applicant must still prove to a police chief or sheriff that he or she has a legitimate cause for having a permit.
“To me, the standard is very, very high,” said Doyle, who is responsible for reviewing and granting or denying these permits in certain areas of Marin. “It’s not just that the Second Amendment is there. To me, the Second Amendment allows someone to lawfully purchase lawful weapons, and they can have them in their business, or their home, and in some instances in their car. That’s totally different than having a concealed weapons permit that’s valid statewide.”
Currently, Doyle said he has about 25 concealed weapons permits issued in Marin, in addition to permits local police chief issue themselves. The licenses belong to a variety of people including judges, district attorneys who have been threatened, and business owners who carry large amounts of cash, such as jewelry salesmen and auctioneers.
Doyle said that in his 17 years of being sheriff, he has never seen one of his permit carriers involved in a shooting.
“I’ve revoked a couple of permits simply because people violated the terms and conditions of carrying them,” he said. “I’ve never had anybody discharge one, that I’m aware of.”