Bar Patron Shows Off Handgun, Lands in Slammer

Showing off a gun is not the best way to make friends at a bar.

Shortly before 11 p.m. Monday, March 28, deputies from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department responded to Regan’s Irish Pub, a popular watering hole tucked inside a commercial development on Greenback Lane a few miles outside of Fair Oaks. One of the patrons had reportedly showed a gun to the bartender in an ill-conceived attempt to score some cool points.

Instead, the authorities were contacted and several inside witnesses pointed arriving deputies to suspect Matthew Miller, who was hanging out on the outside patio.

According to a sheriff’s report, a cursory search for weapons produced a loaded semi-automatic handgun in Miller’s jacket pocket and a second magazine with live ammunition in another jacket pocket. Initially, the 29-year-old Roseville resident refused to put his hands behind his back, said sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos. “Now, he was reported to be intoxicated, so that may have been a factor.”

Miller also refused to answer any questions from the officers, Ramos added, and instead invoked his right to speak with an attorney.

A records check showed that the gun was registered to Miller, though he does not have a concealed weapons permit. Miller was arrested and later booked at the county jail on two firearm possession charges.

Ramos said there are currently 582 active California Concealed Weapons (CCW) in the county, excluding law enforcement. In 2010, the department issued a total of 173 CCWs, and denied 21 applications.