LOS ANGELES (CN) — A group of Second Amendment advocates, galvanized by the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Bruen ruling last year, accused the Los Angeles County sheriff of taking too long to process applications for permits to carry a concealed weapon in public.
The California Rifle & Pistol Association and the Second Amendment Foundation, among other groups and individuals, filed a complaint Monday in federal court against the LA County Sheriff's Department, the La Verne Police Department, and California Attorney General Rob Bonta, challenging the constitutionality of their permit issuance policies.
"In anticipation of bad-faith efforts to obstruct its ruling in recalcitrant jurisdictions, the Bruen court expressly invited challenges such as this one," the plaintiffs wrote in the complaint, referring last year's Supreme Court decision.
In the 6-3 ruling overturning a New York law that required so-called proper cause to get a permit to carry a concealed gun, the Supreme Court had said 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.”
This, according to the plaintiffs, is what is happening in LA County — where they say it can take more than a year to process an application, and where they are charged "grossly excessive fees," face highly subjective suitability criteria, and where authorities refuse to honor out-of-state permits.
Because the LA County Sheriff's Department doesn't handle permit applications for residents who live in non-contract cities, like the City of LA, Beverly Hills and La Verne where the Sheriff's Department doesn't provide policing, applicants need to go through these cities' local law enforcement to get a permit and, in the case of La Verne, they have to pay what they say are exorbitant fees.
“It is apparent that the defendants unilaterally decided that Bruen did not apply to them and have continued to foster policies that make the process to obtain a permit as arduous as possible,” Adam Kraut, executive director of the Second Amendment Foundation, said in a statement. “The fees to process permit applications, delays in processing, and other requirements are grossly excessive and cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny.”
The La Verne Police Department declined to comment on the lawsuit. Representatives of the LA Sheriff's Department and of the California attorney general didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Whereas California lawmakers have been tightening the state's already strict gun laws in recent years, in part in response to prevalence of ghost guns and the numerous mass shootings across the country, gun rights supporters have been going through the courts to challenge, sometimes successfully, the myriad on restrictions imposed by the state.
Last year's Supreme Court decision, which took a big swipe at states' ability to stop people from carrying a concealed guns in public, opened the doors to a new deluge of lawsuits challenging local gun laws.
Just last month, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, relying on the Bruen decision, said in a split decision that Maryland's law requiring potential gun buyers to present a handgun qualification license before purchase violated the U.S. Constitution.
The plaintiffs in the LA County case seek court rulings that the permitting policies violate their Second and 14th Amendment rights and nominal damages.
They are represented by C.D. Michel, Joshua Dale, Konstandinos Moros, and Alexander Frank of Michel & Associates in Long Beach, California, and by Donald Kilmer of Caldwell, Idaho.
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