CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: LAPD’s Broken Concealed Carry Permitting Process is a System Designed to Fail.

Even as the majority of states embrace constitutional carry (29 so far), California continues to make it more difficult for its responsible residents to carry a firearm for lawful self-defense. Not only is the state’s concealed weapons permit law already more complicated and burdensome than those in other states, but some localities’ implementation of the law (or lack of implementation, to be more precise) has raised allegations of unconstitutional violations of California law and the Second Amendment.

The Los Angeles Police Department is allegedly advising applicants for CCW permits that a lack of resources means an expected processing time of around 18 to 22 months, even though California law mandates that permits be approved or denied within 120 days.

The LAPD, it is claimed, is even manipulating the statutory deadline “by putting applicants on a waiting list and not treating their application as ‘accepted’ until LAPD decides to receive it,” even though the 120-day period starts as soon as the application is submitted. Given that the term of a permit, once granted, is only two years, the outcome is a ridiculous situation where the process takes almost as long as the permit is good for.

CCW holders needing to renew are also kept waiting, and stand to lose their carry rights because renewal processing is liable to exceed the time in which a permit remains valid.

The situation isn’t much different in Colorado, where Democrats keep making it more expensive and more of a hassle to get a permit.