The Trump Justice Department announced a groundbreaking lawsuit Tuesday accusing the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department of intentionally slow-walking applications for concealed-carry weapons permits, saying thousands of residents are being denied their Second Amendment rights.
Over the 15 months from January 2024 to March 2025, nearly 4,000 new applications were filed with the department. Just two were approved, the feds said.
Applicants were forced to wait months just to begin processing. Some were on the list nearly three years, the government said.
State law requires an initial determination within 90 days, which makes the sheriff’s actions particularly “flagrant,” the feds said.
“The scope of this constitutional violation is staggering,” the Justice Department said in the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles. “These are not abstract statistics; they represent thousands of law-abiding citizens who have been stripped of their constitutional right to self-defense outside their homes.”
The lawsuit showed that the department had scheduled applicants for interviews as much as two years after they first submitted their paperwork, putting them well beyond the state’s 90-day deadline.
The case marks a new aggressive approach by the Justice Department to defend Second Amendment rights. The department said it was a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, following an equally novel investigation.
The data about delays came from the sheriff’s department, in response to that investigation.
The county has long been known among gun owners as slow, with a two-year turnaround suggested as standard by posters in online gun forums.
The Supreme Court in 2022 issued a ruling in the Bruen case striking down New York’s severe restrictions on concealed-carry permits and ordering jurisdictions to do more to respect the Second Amendment.
But the Justice Department said some states have shown a disturbing resistance to that ruling, with California being a “particularly egregious offender.”
In the new lawsuit, the department says the sheriff’s department doesn’t have a written policy denying gun rights but instead is trying to “nullify through bureaucratic obstruction what they cannot deny through law.”
“The Second Amendment protects the fundamental constitutional right of law-abiding citizens to bear arms,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Los Angeles County may not like that right, but the Constitution does not allow them to infringe upon it. This Department of Justice will continue to fight for the Second Amendment.”
Bill Esayli, acting U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, said the delays could be dangerous for some residents.
“Citizens living in high-crime areas cannot afford to wait to protect themselves with firearms while Los Angeles County dithers,” he said.
The sheriff’s department, in a statement late Tuesday, said it has been approving applications at a faster pace than the Justice Department numbers suggest, and blamed staffing shortages for not being able to go faster.
It said it had a backlog of applications even before the Bruen decision, and saw a surge after that ruling, but it’s working through them.
As of December 2022 the backlog stood at 10,000. It’s now down to 3,200. That includes more than 5,000 permits issued this year to date.
The department called the processing an “unfunded mandate” that it struggles to meet amid a “significant staffing crisis.”
“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department respects the Second Amendment, which guarantees an individual’s right to keep and bear arms and will continue to uphold the constitutional rights of all citizens while also ensuring public safety,” the department said.
California law includes a “good cause” standard for permits, meaning the county decided whether it believed someone needed to have a permit. Los Angeles said it stopped enforcing that requirement after the Bruen ruling.
The permit costs $216, with $43 paid upfront for the application and $173 due if a permit is issued.
New applicants must complete a 16-hour firearms training course. Renewal applicants must take an 8-hour refresher.
Los Angeles County prods applicants to report their occupation and employer’s name and address; to reveal any history of traffic violations; to self-report arrests, even if they didn’t result in charges or convictions; and to disclose any lawsuits the applicant was a party to in the last five years.
The interviewer is also instructed to ask about any past “incident involving firearms.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.