Through their joint Legal Action Project, the National Rifle Association (NRA) and California Rifle and Pistol Association Foundation (CRPA) are sponsoring two new legal actions to enforce a 16-year old court order against the City of Los Angeles over its concealed weapons permit (CCW) issuance policies.
Under Penal Code § 12050, et seq., the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has an obligation to process applications for CCWs, and to issue CCWs if the applicant has “good cause.” For many years, the City and the LAPD had a policy of not making applications available, never finding good cause to exist, and effectively prohibiting the issuance of any CCW permits.
Two lawsuits filed in the 1990’s were supposed to change that. But despite a binding settlement in those suits that resulted in the LAPD being ordered by a court to implement new policies, the LAPD has abandoned these court-ordered policies for handling citizens’ applications for CCW permits, and has fallen back on its old habits.
The City’s unlawful refusal to properly process CCW applications was challenged in two lawsuits in 1992 and 1994. To settle these lawsuits, the LAPD agreed to implement a specific and transparent court-ordered procedure to provide clarity and fairness for citizens applying for CCW permit. The LAPD agreed that all citizens who request a CCW permit application would be provided a CCW application at any LAPD station house, that the application would be accompanied by a written copy of the LAPD’s procedure for handling the application, and the applicants would be informed of the procedures for appealing the denial of a CCW permit application. The settlement also resulted in the establishment of a Citizens Advisory Review Panel, made up of appointed citizens who would review CCW applications denied by the LAPD and make recommendations regarding whether the LAPD should reverse its denial of the CCW permit application.
Read more at the NRA ILA
