BREAKING: CRPA Sends Demand Letter to LAPD
CRPA sent a letter to the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles City Council demanding that they immediately devote whatever resources are necessary to reduce wait times for CCW permit applications. In the letter, we warn that a lawsuit is imminent if the City does not comply.
Before Bruen, LAPD almost never issued CCW permits, as there were only four active permits despite the City having a large population of 3.8 million people. Bruen forced that to change, but the City has found other ways to obstruct the right to carry. Wait times for a CCW permit with LAPD have ballooned, with new applicants being told in emails that they can expect to wait 18-22 months. This places an unacceptable burden on the Second Amendment right, and the Supreme Court warned in Bruen that “because any permitting scheme can be put toward abusive ends, we do not rule out constitutional challenges to shall-issue regimes where, for example, lengthy wait times in processing license applications or exorbitant fees deny ordinary citizens their right to public carry.” While CRPA stands by the fact that any licensing scheme is an infringement of the rights of the people to bear arms, we must insist that jurisdictions at least act within the shorter timeframe for issuance of CCWs noted in state law.
LAPD is currently violating California law, which mandates that CCW permit applications be processed in no more than 120 days. Unfortunately, Attorney General Bonta and the Department of Justice have shown no interest in enforcing that law, so it is left to CRPA to step up and work to vindicate its members rights.
Our letter warns LAPD and the City that within the next 30 days, they must propose a concrete plan to bring down wait times. If they refuse to cooperate, the next step will be a CRPA lawsuit to protect our members’ right to carry. We’ve already won a preliminary injunction on the issue of long wait times for the individual Plaintiffs in our lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and that litigation remains ongoing. If necessary, we hope to expand on that win in this potential lawsuit against LAPD.