LA gun owners stuck waiting years for concealed carry permits score major DOJ victory

The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department (LASD) has slashed lengthy concealed carry permit delays after a Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit accused the agency of leaving thousands of applications in limbo and forcing some gun owners to wait nearly three years for action.

The turnaround prompted the to end its landmark lawsuit against LASD, with federal officials announcing Thursday that the sheriffs department is now meeting California's permitting deadlines after adding personnel and new processing software.

The case put one of the nation's largest at the center of the Trump administration's push to enforce Second Amendment rights, with the DOJ calling the outcome a "huge win" for Los Angeles County residents and gun owners.

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The agreement marks the conclusion of a case the DOJ touted when it was filed in September 2025 as its first-ever affirmative lawsuit brought in support of gun owners' .

At the time of the lawsuit, applicants were waiting an average of more than nine months to receive decisions on their permits, the DOJ alleged. LASD has since "drastically" reduced those waits and is now complying with California's statutory deadlines, the DOJ said.

"The sheriff acknowledged the problem and devoted substantial additional resources, including new processing software and additional personnel, to cutting waiting times dramatically," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division said.

"We applaud their efforts and are happy to be able to bring this litigation to a successful conclusion!"

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The settlement caps a battle that began in March 2025, when the DOJ's Civil Rights Division opened a pattern-or-practice investigation into whether the nation's largest sheriff's department was effectively denying residents their constitutional right to bear arms through excessive permitting delays.

The DOJ said at the time that it had received numerous complaints about the department's handling of concealed carry applications. Federal officials pointed to a court case in which applicants had faced waits of roughly 18 months.

The investigation escalated into a federal lawsuit on Sept. 30, 2025.

Federal prosecutors alleged that between January 2024 and March 2025, LASD received 3,982 applications for new concealed carry licenses but had approved just two as of May 2025.

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Approximately 2,768 applications remained pending, while another 1,210 had been withdrawn, according to the complaint.

The federal government alleged applicants waited an average of 281 days before LASD took action on its applications, while