Thousands are stuck with their concealed carry permits in limbo, sometimes for over a year, as big city police departments grow lengthy backlogs of applications. 

While the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Bruen almost three years ago seemed to signal the fall of strict "may issue" concealed carry licensing practices, both the New York Police Department and Los Angeles Police Department are making news for being slower than ever to issue permits. 

In the Big Apple, NY1 reports that NYPD license officials are bogged down with thousands of cases, with many often stretching past the state-mandated six-month maximum wait for a permit. One applicant interviewed hasn't heard anything in 11 months, and his lawyer, who has filed court petitions on behalf of at least 20 concealed carry applicants, remarked of the program, "I think there’s just complete mismanagement." 

Meanwhile, on the West Coast, things have gotten so bad that the LAPD has been sent a warning letter from the California Rifle & Pistol Association that a lawsuit is imminent if the City does not comply with state law when it comes to issuing CCWs. Whereas California law states that CCW applications must be processed – granted or rejected – within 120 days, the LAPD is currently warning applicants can expect to wait 18-22 months before receiving a decision. 

"Our letter warns LAPD and the City that within the next 30 days, they must propose a concrete plan to bring down wait times," said the CRPA in a statement. "If they refuse to cooperate, the next step will be a CRPA lawsuit to protect our members’ right to carry. We’ve already won a preliminary injunction on the issue of long wait times for the individual Plaintiffs in our lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and that litigation remains ongoing. If necessary, we hope to expand on that win in this potential lawsuit against LAPD."

Banner image: Glock 48 A-Cut with installed Aimpoint COA in a Galco Triton 3.0 IWB holster. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)