The California Rifle & Pistol Association (CRPA) has issued a pre-litigation letter to the Alameda County Sheriff's Department demanding that they comply with a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling concerning Concealed Carry Weapon (CCW) permitting.
"We have received unending complaints about Alameda County’s permit process from CRPA’s members who live in Alameda County, ranging from serious constitutional violations to invasive absurdities that violate California law,” wrote attorney Konstadinos T. Moros in the Sept. 16 letter. “We have had several applicants contact us who applied back in June following the N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen decision, and their applications languish with little or no action. This violates the Supreme Court’s ruling.”
In N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated good or proper cause requirements in CCW permitting. In that decision, Justice Clarence Thomas explained that permit regimes which do not require applicants to show an atypical need for armed self-defense are acceptable.
Moros
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“What the Bruen ruling says is that although you can require that people be peaceable, law-abiding citizens, you can't have subjective requirements, and we think a psychological exam is inherently subjective,” Moros said. “From what we've heard from one person, Alameda is asking applicants to complete a 300-question multiple-choice exam and evaluating them based on it. That is very, very subjective.”
The June 2022 SCOTUS decision also ruled that lengthy wait times in processing license applications and exorbitant fees deny ordinary citizens their right to public carry.
"Alameda is very slowly moving people through the process," Moros told the Southern California Record. "They're doing interviews but as of now, I don't believe they've issued anyone a permit yet since N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. I haven't talked with anyone who has received one yet."
Alameda’s application fee alone is $195 and the psychological exam costs $150, according to Moros.
“That is a very big burden on people and that's why we included that point in the draft complaint we sent to Alameda,” he said. “It's absurd when other states including Oregon, Washington, and New Hampshire are charging less than $100 for their permit fees.”
As previously reported in the Southern California Record, CRPA issued a similar pre-litigation letter to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in Sept. 2022. However since then, the LAPD started processing and issuing permits.
"The difference between Alameda and the LAPD is that Alameda seems to be throwing up every obstacle possible to not issue permits," Moros said.
Other violations the letter alleges include asking whether an applicant had home security systems or cameras at their residence, requiring proof of income, and asking where applicants intend to carry.