The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for allegedly denying residents’ Second Amendment rights through an inordinately long concealed weapons permit application process.
The lawsuit, filed by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, comes on the heels of a DOJ investigation and a partially successful lawsuit filed by the California Rifle and Pistol Association.
In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, the DOJ accuses Sheriff Robert Luna of overseeing a system designed to deny citizens’ Second Amendment rights.
“Between January 2024 and March 2025, Defendants received 3,982 applications for new concealed carry licenses. Of these, they approved exactly two—a mere 0.05 percent approval rate that cannot be explained by legitimate disqualifying factors alone,” the lawsuit states.
“This is not bureaucratic inefficiency; it is systematic obstruction of constitutional rights.”
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a statement announcing the lawsuit that it “seeks to stop Los Angeles County’s egregious pattern and practice of delaying law-abiding citizens from exercising their right to bear arms.”
Hellbound and Down 