The federal Department of Justice says the LA County Sheriff’s Office has launched an investigation into whether people’s gun rights are violating excessive fees and hidden carry permit wait times.
DOJ announced Thursday afternoon that it was launching an investigation into possible abuse of the Second Amendment Security Bureau, part of a broader review of “restrictive firearms-related laws” in California and other states.
Federal authorities cited the lawsuit challenging the 18-month delayed plaintiff who faced receiving a hidden carry license from LASD as a reason for the investigation. The DOJ news release states that others “are likely going through equally long delays that overburden or effectively deny the right to second amendments for the people of Los Angeles.
The Justice Department called California “particularly awful offenders,” resisting the Supreme Court’s recent amended amendment ruling and enacted new laws to further limit the right to possess arms. Last month, Trump oversaw Atty. General Pam Bondy and infringement across the country.
“This Department of Justice will not stand vaguely while the state and region violate the Second Amendment rights of Americans to comply with ordinary law,” Bondi said in a statement on the LASD investigation. “The second amendment is not a second-rate right. Under my watch, the department will actively enforce the second amendment, just as it actively enforces other fundamental constitutional rights.”
The Sheriff’s Office issued a statement Thursday that it respected and supported the second amendment. The department said limited staff and application backlogs blame the delay in approval of permits.
“We are committed to handling all hidden carry weapons (CCW) applications in compliance with state and local laws to promote responsible gun ownership,” the statement said. “The department is facing a critical staffing crisis with only 14 staff members in the CCW unit, but has approved 15,000 CCW applications. We are currently working diligently on roughly 4,000 active cases and strive to meet this rich mission.”
Jacob Charles, an associate professor of law at Pepperdine Caruso Law of Law School, who is studying the second amendment, said he had never seen a similar study before. Classified as a pattern or practice investigation, this type of DOJ probe usually focuses on police misconduct, such as excessive use of force and racial bias.
The investigation struck him by “controlling another culture war issue to a red and blue blue” amid a wider gust of “partisan targets” by the Trump administration of liberal jurisdictions and groups.
“We have to look at this in the context of Trump attacking law firms, universities, cities, counties, states, and states personally and not publicly arguing to him,” Charles said. “He’s not pretending to be president of all over the United States.”
Another expert on the Second Amendment Act, University of Chicago law professor Darrell Ir Miller called the investigation an example of the Trump administration.
“The fact that (the investigation) hadn’t been done before doesn’t mean that it can’t be done, but it clearly just highlights the fact that for the Trump administration, the Second Amendment is a truly important right, especially for the Trump administration,” Miller said.
Chuck Michelle, chairman of California Rifle and Pistol Assun, celebrated the investigation and informed the Times that his group was a “one outcome” of LASD’s hidden carry permit process.
“I think the reason DOJ is involved in this particular jurisdiction is because of what was revealed in this lawsuit,” he said.
Michelle said he wouldn’t be surprised if the investigation expanded beyond the county, as other California jurisdictions, including the Los Angeles Police Department, are also crimes of long wait times and exorbitant costs of permits.
“The main issue we currently face from somewhat rejected jurisdictions is the excessive fees and excessive waiting times to get licensed to go through the application process.
Bondi said he hoped that Thursday’s announcement would encourage other regions to “voluntarily accept their obligation to protect the Second Amendment.” Otherwise, she added, the survey will be the first of many similar ones in California and across the country.
A pattern or practice investigation is conducted by a civil rights lawyer at the Department of Justice to search for patterns of fraud within a particular law enforcement agency.
Miller, a professor at the University of Chicago, said the investigation marked a sharp reversal for Republicans. Recent probes have followed civilian deaths by police officers and Minneapolis police officers, Louisville, Kentucky.
“Republicans in particular praised many beliefs in local control and national rights,” he said. Now, for the second revision, “These priorities are reversed.”
Miller said the investigation is limited by existing law and will limit what the Department of Justice can determine is problematic with LA County’s wait times and fees.
The Supreme Court suggests that the “troubling” gun permit process in particular may be over-the-top, but he said it doesn’t define how long it takes to wait for permission or too high licensing fees. And he said that since the court has not yet set the standard, the Department of Justice will struggle to declare that certain periods or fees associated with the county permitting process constitute unconstitutional conduct.
The county can protect itself by showing that its permitting process is performing the best possible function with limited resources and funding, he said. However, there are cases where the Department of Justice finds something more creepy, such as evidence that the sheriff’s department is intentionally and systematically slow permission, and then it declares a pattern or practice of unconstitutional behavior.
