The California Rifle & Pistol Association (CRPA) filed suit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department claiming the department is not issuing concealed carry permits in compliance with Bruen (2022).
On June 23, 2022, Breitbart News reported that the Supreme Court of the United States issued the Bruen decision in which the court ruled against New York’s proper cause requirement for concealed carry permit issuance.
In addition to striking the proper cause requirement, Bruen made clear that the Second Amendment protects a right to carry a gun outside the home for self-defense. It also required that in cases involving challenges to gun control, courts are to weigh the controls by looking for historical precedents in American history and tradition rather than in claims that the controls serve a specific purpose.
The suit was filed December 4, 2023. Other plaintiffs joined with CRPA, including the Second Amendment Foundation, Gun Owners of America, and Gun Owners of California.
The plaintiffs contend that the LA County Sheriff’s Department maintains “carry permit issuance policies and laws that make it extremely difficult, if not outright impossible or impermissibly time consuming [to obtain a permit].”
Upon filing the suit, CRPA president and general counsel Chuck Michel said, “CRPA has let it be known that across all of California’s 58 counties, we will be vigilant and relentless in our efforts to ensure that post-Bruen CCW (concealed weapons permit) policies and procedures are in place and followed. This is all a part of the CRPA’s CCW Reckoning project. Today’s lawsuit could easily have been avoided if the Constitution was observed and the Bruen decision was followed.”
The case is California Rifle & Pistol Association v. Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, No. 2:23-cv-10169 in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at
