DOJ Announces Second Amendment Investigation into LA County

California is pretty hostile toward guns, and that’s largely driven by the large urban areas like San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, Sacramento, Oakland–because I had to hit names that didn’t start with “S” eventually–and, of course, Los Angeles.

In fact, these regions have taken the hostility toward the Second Amendment to new heights with ridiculous fees for concealed carry that put it out of reach for many law-abiding citizens.

That’s wrong, and we all know it.

Unfortunately, the only way we’ve seen to deal with it is for private parties to file expensive lawsuits. 

Well, now the Department of Justice is getting involved.

Protecting the Second Amendment rights of ordinary, law-abiding Americans is a high priority for this Administration.

As part of a broader review of restrictive firearms-related laws in California and other States, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division today announced an investigation into the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to determine whether it is engaging in a pattern or practice of depriving ordinary, law-abiding Californians of their Second Amendment rights. A recent federal court decision found that “the law and facts [we]re clearly in … favor” of two private plaintiffs who challenged the lengthy eighteen-month delays that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department had imposed when processing their concealed handgun license applications. And the Civil Rights Division has reason to believe that those two plaintiffs are not the only residents of Los Angeles County experiencing similarly long delays that are unduly burdening, or effectively denying, the Second Amendment rights of the people of Los Angeles.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that the Second Amendment is not “a second-class right.” And over the past two decades, the Supreme Court has recognized that the Second Amendment is a fundamental, individual constitutional right and has taken multiple opportunities to strengthen Second Amendment protections for ordinary, law-abiding citizens.

Some States and localities, however, have resisted this recent pro-Second Amendment caselaw. And California has been a particularly egregious offender. In response to recent Supreme Court caselaw, California enacted new legislation to further restrict the ability of ordinary, law-abiding Californians to keep and bear arms. And many California localities appear to be imposing additional burdens beyond those required by California state law, including by subjecting ordinary, law-abiding Californians to expensive fees and lengthy weight times associated with applications for concealed handgun licenses.

“This Department of Justice will not stand idly by while States and localities infringe on the Second Amendment rights of ordinary, law-abiding Americans,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “The Second Amendment is not a second-class right, and under my watch, the Department will actively enforce the Second Amendment just like it actively enforces other fundamental constitutional rights.”

Attorney General Bondi hopes that states and localities will voluntarily embrace their duty to protect the Second Amendment rights of their citizens. But if necessary, today’s announcement will be the first of many similar investigations, lawsuits, or other actions involving other localities in California, the State of California itself, and any other states or localities that insist on unduly burdening, or effectively denying, the Second Amendment rights of their ordinary, law-abiding citizens.

Now, I’ve heard a lot of people recently complain that part of the problem with the Trump administration is [insert state law here], and I kind of shrugged. Those are state laws, not federal. There’s not much Trump could really do about it. 

And he really can’t. He can’t make those laws go away with the stroke of a pen.

But this right here is something he can do. It’s something that the Department of Justice needs to do a lot more, too, because while Los Angeles County is pretty bad, they’re from the only bad actor.

Luckily, Bondi apparently plans on going after them, too.

Look, Bruen found that states could, in fact, require permits. They didn’t have to all go to constitutional carry, which sucks but it is what it is. That’s fine. We can live with it. We’ve all dealt with it before.

But when you’re requiring permits and you make it impossible for many to get them, you end up with the same situation that led to Bruen in the first place. Then, it was “may issue” laws that required “good cause” for a permit to be issued. Now, it’s just about having enough money, then waiting indefinitely until the issuing agency gets around to issuing the permit.

It’s ridiculous. 

Now, the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice–one which has largely ignored this particular civil right historically–is now stepping in.

Will this be enough for the Second Amendment advocates who are displeased with what they’ve seen from the Trump administration so far? I’d say probably not. I like what we’ve seen, and this is probably the most pro-Second Amendment stuff we’ve seen from an administration in my lifetime, but there are still a lot of laws on the books that infringe on the right to keep and bear arms. Unless those are also targeted, as well as seeing a lot more pro-gun moves from pro-gun elected officials in Washington, I doubt they’re going to be happy.

Already, some are asking where the actions against these other issuing agencies are, and not without at least some cause.

Still, this is another move in the right direction, and we didn’t lose our rights overnight. We won’t get them back that quickly, either. But there has to be more than this in the long run for anyone to be really satisfied.