There’s reason to believe the LAPD’s permitting fiasco is unlikely to improve anytime soon.
Even as the majority of states embrace constitutional carry (29 so far), California continues to make it more difficult for its responsible residents to carry a firearm for lawful self-defense. Not only is the state’s concealed weapons (CCW) permit law already more complicated and burdensome than those in other states, but some localities’ implementation of the law (or lack of implementation, to be more precise) has raised allegations of unconstitutional violations of California law and the Second Amendment.
The Los Angeles, California, Police Department (LAPD) is allegedly advising applicants for CCW permits that a lack of resources means an expected processing time of around 18-22 months, even though California law mandates that permits be approved or denied within 120 days. The LAPD, it is claimed, is even manipulating the statutory deadline “by putting applicants on a waiting list and not treating their application as ‘accepted’ until LAPD decides to receive it,” even though the 120-day period starts as soon as the application is submitted. Given that the term of a permit, once granted, is only two years, the outcome is a ridiculous situation where the process takes almost as long as the permit is good for. CCW holders needing to renew are also kept waiting, and stand to lose their carry rights because renewal processing is liable to exceed the time in which a permit remains valid.
These processing issues are now so acute and well known that they are being cited in criminal proceedings as a defense or justification. According to the Vanguard News Group, an applicant with a pending CCW application was apprehended with three legal and registered firearms and was charged with improper firearm carry. The defense counsel argued the matter was appropriate for a judicial diversion (in which charges are dismissed after a defendant completes court-imposed conditions), pointing to the accused’s stable employment with the Coast Guard, their current CCW waitlist status, and the LAPD’s excessive and likely unconstitutional delays in issuing permits. On July 8, Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Brad Miles Fox denied the judicial diversion request but left the door open for further arguments on the processing delays. The denial was without prejudice so as to allow defense counsel to renew the motion next month and provide the commissioner with “additional information about the LAPD’s backlog and its effect on the accused’s case.”
