Following up on my previous article about a federal investigation into unjust delays in CCW wait times, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has elected to sue the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD), demonstrating its commitment to gun owners and the right to bear arms. The lawsuit alleges that “unreasonable delays” in permitting decisions infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens seeking to take responsibility for their own personal safety.
“Citizens living in high-crime areas cannot afford to wait to protect themselves with firearms while Los Angeles County dithers… The right to bear arms is among the founding principles of our nation. It can and must be upheld,” says Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli.
According to the DOJ, this “first-of-its-kind Second Amendment investigation,” launched by its Civil Rights Division in March of 2025, is a response to countless complaints about delays in the LASD permitting process.
“Numerous complaints received by the Division revealed inexplicable delays well beyond California statutory requirements and in violation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,” Essayli’s office said in a statement.
According to the lawsuit, only two permits have been approved in the last two months out of a total of 8000 applications, and interviews have been “scheduled as late as November 2026—more than two years after some applications were first submitted.”
“This is a landmark lawsuit in that it’s the first time the Department of Justice has ever filed a case in support of gun owners… We are thrilled to see the federal government step up and defend the Second Amendment rights of citizens and hope this pattern continues around the country,” according to a statement by Adam Kraut, executive director of the Second Amendment Foundation.
The DOJ went one step further, claiming that the sheriff’s department was engaged in an established, wilful, and deliberate pattern of denying Americans their Constitutional rights, forcing applicants “to abandon their constitutional rights through administrative exhaustion.”
“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has systematically denied thousands of law-abiding Californians their fundamental Second Amendment right to bear arms outside the home—not through outright refusal, but through a deliberate pattern of unconscionable delay that renders this constitutional right meaningless in practice,” according to the lawsuit.
On Monday, Attorney General Pam Bondi reaffirmed that the DOJ was working to defend the Second Amendment, protecting “the fundamental constitutional right of law-abiding citizens to bear arms.”
“Los Angeles County may not like that right, but the Constitution does not allow them to infringe upon it… This Department of Justice will continue to fight for the Second Amendment,” Bondi said.
Another day means another leftist dumpster fire gets to pretend the rules don’t apply to them. But taxpayers to the rescue, funding both sides of another lawsuit to determine why these crooks aren’t complying with a Supreme Court ruling and politely asking them to oblige. If only the law were that understanding and flexible when we, the people, find ourselves in its crosshairs.
Read the full article here