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SACRAMENTO — Blacks and Latinos are more likely than whites to be charged with felonies when they are caught with concealed or loaded weapons, according to a state report. 

Young people are more likely to face felony charges, and men are far more likely than women to be charged with felonies, according to the report by the California Department of Justice. 

The study compiles charges for the first six months of a new law allowing a felony to be charged against anyone caught carrying a concealed or loaded weapon, if the person is not registered as the gun’s owner. 

The statistics come amid a growing debate over allegations that police engage in “racial profiling,” targeting nonwhites for traffic or other stops. 

Department spokesman Mike Van Winkle said justice officials haven’t looked for an explanation for the statistics provided by local police agencies. 

“We just present the data that’s provided,” he said. “There are other people who make the judgments.” 

The statistics show: 

• Under one section of the law that took effect Jan. 1, 2000, blacks were charged with felonies 53.5 percent of the time and Hispanics 51.4 percent, while whites faced felonies 36.5 percent of the time. 

Under a different section of the same law, blacks faced felony charges in 58.3 percent of cases and Hispanics in 58.3 percent, while whites were charged with felonies in 32 percent of cases. 

• Those under age 30 were more likely to be charged with felonies, while those over 30 were more likely to be charged with misdemeanors. 

• More than 95 percent of those charged either as felons or misdemeanants were men. The few women who were charged were more likely to face misdemeanors. 

A felony is punishable by prison time, while a misdemeanor can bring up to a year in a county jail. 

Officials with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People did not return telephone messages left by The Associated Press Friday afternoon, while an employee at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund said no one was available to comment. 

The measure’s author, Sen. Jack Scott, D-Pasadena, defended it as necessary to plug a loophole in previous state law. 

“Before my legislation, criminals could be charged with felonies for carrying a switchblade, but only misdemeanors for carrying loaded guns,” Scott said in a statement Friday. “That just didn’t make sense.” 

Larry Todd, past president of the California Police Chiefs Association and chairman of the group’s firearms committee, called the law “one of the most significant pieces of gun control legislation that ever passed in California.” 

In the first six months, 1,149 felony charges were filed under the law. 

Van Winkle said the department did not collect comparison figures for misdemeanors and felonies in the years before the law took effect. 

Scott said such felony charges previously were rare and could only be brought when prosecutors could prove the weapon carrier was already a felon, had a previous weapons conviction or was a documented street gang member. 

California Rifle and Pistol Association Inc. attorney Chuck Michel and other gun advocates said they don’t have problems with the law if police are using it to target criminals. 

But they said the report does not contain enough information to determine whether otherwise law-abiding citizens are facing felony charges as a result of the new law.