Long Wait Times for Carry Permits Annoy Californians

It’s bad enough that you have to have a permit to carry a firearm in so many places at all, but if you’re going to do it, then the permitting process needs to be as quick and affordable as humanly possible.

Of course, that assumes that the people designing the process aren’t outright hostile toward the right to keep and bear arms as a general rule. In a state like California, you can make no such assumption.

With every legislative cycle that passes, California seems to embrace more and more draconian infringements on the Second Amendment, but one of the most annoying and frustrating for Californian gun owners is just how long it takes to get a permit.

It is taking so long to acquire licenses for concealed carry guns in California that some Black and Latino state residents are beginning to suspect the delays are rooted in racial bias or political foot-dragging.

The average wait time for a concealed carry gun license in California can be up to six months or more. This is a significantly longer wait compared to other states that may process licenses within timeframes that span a week to a few months.

Julio Amayo, who works for Los Angeles County training canines, recently applied for a license and was told there would be a 16-to-20 month wait just for the initial interview to see if he qualifies for the license.

“It’s a protection thing. I grew up in South Central Los Angeles back in the ‘90s. It was not uncommon to just go to sleep with gunfire, nightly, or have a helicopter circle your house if something was going on in the neighborhood,” Amayo said. “It’s just a safety thing for me. If these people are walking around with guns and are able to use them for whatever reason, I should be legally able to carry it to protect myself and my family.”

Amayo is not alone.

Black Californians who spoke with California Black Media (CBM) pointed out that some of California’s gun laws are rooted in racism and a fear of Black residents owning firearms. It is well documented that the Mulford Act, grew out of reactions to the Black Panthers in Oakland openly carrying firearms during the 1960s. They are hoping that some of those historical racial biases do not still exist in state policymaking.

They also point out that California’s Democratic state leadership strongly supports restrictions on gun ownership. Therefore, they say, there may not be any incentives built into the state’s bureaucracy to speed up the processing of gun permits.

No one should have to wait for a year and a half or more to exercise a constitutionally protected right. Even if there’s no racial bias at all, and based on what we’ve seen out of New Jersey, let’s not make that assumption.

At best, California lawmakers aren’t being racist, they’re just trying to cause problems for anyone who wants to exercise their right to bear arms lawfully, which might be a smidge better, but only because they’re being jackasses in a more general sense than being racist jackasses.

And again, I’m not prepared to give anyone that benefit of the doubt.

Let’s also note that there have been other problems with concealed carry applications in parts of California as well.

While the Supreme Court has found that permit to carry requirements aren’t an infringement of the Constitution as of yet, I’m pretty sure they’re not going to look favorably on obscenely long delays in the permitting process. Especially as some jurisdictions are trying to charge upward of $1000 or more for the “privilege” of getting a carry permit.

This is a serious problem and no one should trust the legislature there to do a blasted thing about it.