The California Rifle & Pistol Association (CRPA) has issued a pre-litigation letter to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the San Jose Police Department, and other police departments across the state demanding that they comply with a recent Supreme Court ruling.
“Numerous individuals have contacted CRPA to report that various police and sheriffs’ departments, including yours, have been delaying conceal carry weapon permit issuance,” wrote attorney Konstadinos T. Moros in the Sept. 16 letter. “Such obstruction constitutes open defiance of the Supreme Court’s recent landmark ruling in N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.”
In Bruen, the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated good or proper cause requirements in Concealed Carry Weapon (CCW) permitting with Justice Clarence Thomas explaining that permit regimes which do not require applicants to show an atypical need for armed self-defense are acceptable.
“They have to have a permitting process in accordance with both the California law, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling, which means that when someone turns in an application, they have to actually accept the application,” said Rick Travis, CRPA legislative director in Fullerton. “Then that applicant must undergo a background check. It has to go through the Department of Justice here in the state, but for the police departments that got these letters, they're not doing that.”
The letter to the LAPD was addressed to Chief Michel R. Moore and accuses the department of having unclear processes on how to apply for permits, endless wait times, subjective requirements, application procedures that violate applicants’ privacy, and in some cases, the refusal to even accept applications for processing.
“LAPD has had this attitude of email us, we'll keep those emails, and then once we figure out what we're doing, we'll get back to you in the order in which it was received,” Travis told the Southern California Record.
CRPA is threatening the LAPD and other police departments with lawsuits if they do not comply within 45 days.
"This is your final warning to quickly implement a permitting process in accordance with both California law as well as the Supreme Court’s ruling," the letter states. "CRPA requests that you promptly respond in the next week with a detailed and reasonable plan of how you intend to bring your department into compliance. As long as this plan is in line with the Bruen decision and the Constitution generally, we will support your department and offer assistance in working with you to bring about the appropriate change."