The California Rifle & Pistol Association is already suing the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for, among other things, extraordinarily long delays in processing concealed carry applications, so you’d think that the department would be doing all it can to speed up the process. Instead, it sounds like the agency has stopped processing applications altogether. 

CRPA attorney Kostas Moros says the organization is aware of the issue, which the sheriff’s department says could last for “several weeks”. 

As we’ve gotten a couple member complaints about this, I wanted to mention that CRPA is aware that the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department is not currently issuing CCW permits, and has cancelled several scheduled pickup appointments. Considering people have waited up to two years to…

— Kostas Moros (@MorosKostas) April 29, 2024

While Moros isn’t exactly sure what’s going on, he suspects that the halt in processing carry applications is due to the LASD adopting a standardized concealed carry license that was adopted by CalDOJ after lawmakers approved their Bruen response bill. 

What does this mean for those folks who had appointments to pick up their carry license, many of whom have already been waiting a year or more? Will they have to start the process all over again, or will this just be a “minor” delay of a few more weeks while the department switches over to the CalDOJ-approved standardized permit? 

Moros has also highlighted another agency that’s screwing around with our Second Amendment rights, this one in the Bay Area. 

We have had some CRPA members in Alameda complain that the Sheriff’s Department is telling them they will need to reapply with Oakland PD if they live within Oakland city limits. For some applicants who have already waited for a year or more, that’s unacceptable.

I reached out…

— Kostas Moros (@MorosKostas) April 30, 2024

According to Alameda County, the sheriff’s department has not directed anyone to any local police department and is supposedly still accepting applications from all county residents. But Kostas reports that the sheriff’s department also stated that “cities are establishing their CCW permit processes, and as those processes are ready to go live, Alameda will direct new applicants to them going forward.” 

In theory, this shouldn’t effect Alameda County residents who’ve already applied for their CCW, though as Kostas points out, some of those folks have already been waiting more than twelve months to get their Second Amendment permission slip. All the while, criminals have turned the country into the “wild, wild West”, according to one anti-violence advocate.  

Alameda County has one-sixth the population of Los Angeles County, but has a freeway and highway shootings-per-capita rate five times higher since 2021, according to the data, which was provided by the California Highway Patrol to this newspaper in March. Last year, Alameda County surpassed L.A. for a first-place finish no one wants: 79 reported highway shootings, compared to 71 in L.A., a place known for being the capital of the nation’s car culture. 

The East Bay “is the wild wild West right now — it’s full of guns, and the smallest inkling of a disagreement can result in a shooting,” said Glen Upshaw Sr., a violence interrupter with the Oakland-based nonprofit Youth Alive! “Ninety percent of the stories we hear are, ‘I don’t even know why he shot me.’”

Criminals are getting guns with impunity, and it’s virtually impossible for the average Alameda County resident to lawfully carry a firearm for self-defense… at least within a reasonable amount of time. 

As Moros says, this is completely unacceptable. It’s also becoming the new standard in some of the state’s most populated counties. CRPA v. LASD is a great vehicle to challenge these ongoing abuses, but it’s still in the early stages, and relief can’t come fast enough for those gun owners who’ve been denied their right to bear arms for a year or more while their local licensing authority slogs through the approval process.