Salute

Petitioners appeal from an order dismissing their petition for a writ of mandate, after a demurrer to that petition had been sustained. For the reasons set forth below, we reverse the order.

Petitioners were and now are duly admitted attorneys-at-law and were duly licensed private investigators. As investigators they applied to respondent Sheriff of Los Angeles County for a permit to carry concealed weapons and their application was rejected. They sought relief in the trial court with the result above stated.

As duly licensed private investigators, petitioners are authorized to carry loaded firearms on their persons and in automobiles. (Pen. Code, § 12031, subd. (b)(7).) However, that section does not cover the carrying of such weapons in a concealed manner. Permission to carry a concealed weapon may be sought, as petitioners did here, by an application under sections 12050 and 12051 of the Penal Code. Those sections read as follows:

Section 12050: “(a) The sheriff of a county or the chief or other head of a municipal police department of any city or city and county, upon proof that the person applying is of good moral character, that good cause exists for the…