The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department has agreed to increase the pace at which it approves concealed carry handgun licenses for citizens after settling with the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, celebrated the agreement. “This is a significant victory for our office and the 2nd Amendment,” he declared. He included a report from ABC7 with details about the agreement between the DOJ and the sheriff’s department (LASD).
California Democrats were infuriated after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that New York, and therefore other states, could not have aggressive and excessive requirements for demonstrating “good cause” before allowing citizens to carry handguns in public spaces. In order to try and restrict gun ownership as much as possible, particularly concealed carry in public, California imposed various requirements for obtaining licenses from sheriffs’ offices. And of course, that also means that certain sheriffs’ offices will drag out and delay the approval process as much as possible in order to make it difficult or impossible for some citizens to obtain the licenses.
That Supreme Court decision, the New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen ruling, is also the reason that LASD has settled with the DOJ. Because the Supreme Court stated that Americans have a constitutional right to carry a pistol in public for self-defense, Los Angeles authorities have to acknowledge that.
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Last year, when the DOJ filed its lawsuit, the average wait time for applicants to receive their license was about nine months, per ABC7. That has now changed dramatically. “The Justice Department supports our law enforcement partners," said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ Civil Rights Division. "The sheriff acknowledged the problem and devoted substantial additional resources, including new processing software and additional personnel, to cutting waiting times dramatically. We applaud their efforts and are happy to be able to bring this litigation to a successful conclusion!”
LASD also issued a statement to mark the agreement. “During the last year, the department has made significant strides and has eliminated the backlog of applications for carry conceal permits," it insisted. "The department officially established a Carry Conceal Unit, in the summer of 2025, that is staffed by 16 full-time personnel. The application process also transitioned from a paper application to a fully automated process, making it more efficient and transparent."
It boasted about the changes already implemented. "Earlier this year, the department began publicly reporting statistics on our web page on CCW permits issued to enhance transparency and provide applicants with greater insight into the process and soon will expand the public reporting to include total application processing times and other relevant information,” LASD added.
Besides this settlement in Los Angeles, the DOJ also gave Americans another Second Amendment win this month by conceding that it is unconstitutional to prevent all citizens from carrying firearms in post offices. Gun rights advocates are already hoping this decision will lead to expanded gun carry privileges in other public and federal spaces too.
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