The Bruen decision put the kibosh on a lot of chicanery involving gun-permitting schemes throughout the nation. Lawmakers couldn't demand that people provide a reason that someone else could use to decide whether or not they got to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
Since then, anti-gun lawmakers have engaged in a lot of other shenanigans to keep people from carrying, but in Santa Clara , they're taking it to a whole new level. That level may land them in court, too.
You see, they can't just decide you don't get to carry a gun because your reason isn't good enough in some official's eyes. So, they've taken the approach of just making it ridiculously expensive.
CRPA is considering litigation against Santa Clara County for its extraordinarily high CCW permit fees of nearly $1,000, which brings the total expense to applicants to around $2,000 when the other expenses (psych exam, livescan, training course) are factored in.
— Kostas Moros (@MorosKostas) January 14, 2025
If we do pursue…
For the record, Kostas Moros is a California-based Second Amendment attorney.
The totality of his post on X:
CRPA is considering litigation against Santa Clara County for its extraordinarily high CCW permit fees of nearly $1,000, which brings the total expense to applicants to around $2,000 when the other expenses (psych exam, livescan, training course) are factored in.
If we do pursue this lawsuit, we will need two types of plaintiffs (mostly No. 1, but some of No. 2 as well):
1. Residents of Santa Clara County who would apply for a CCW permit with the Sheriff's Department, but have not done so because they cannot afford the massive expense of doing so.
2. Residents of Santa Clara County who have a CCW permit due to be renewed in 2025, who will now have to pay $477 plus the cost of a training course to renew their permit. If you can demonstrate financial difficulty due to this expense, that would be ideal.
For those without a permit yet, please make sure you have a spotless personal record and would be a shoo-in to get the permit, but for the expense. We don't want the case getting hung up on arguments of "he would have been denied anyway" and such.
If you are interested, email me.
Now, I understand that California is more expensive in general than pretty much everywhere else in the country, but $1,000 to get a concealed carry permit is ridiculous all on it's own. Add in another grand in additional expenses and yeah, you've got well beyond whatever justifiable costs are associated with a permit.
Running all the administrative side of issuing a permit isn't free, after all, so I don't think anyone thinks there shouldn't be a cost if there's going to be a requirement – constitutional carry states don't necessarily have to worry about this, though – but there's no way it costs them $1,000 to issue a permit, especially in a "Shall Issue" environment.
What this is really about is making sure "the poors" don't have the means to defend themselves while the elites do.
I sincerely hope that the California Rifle and Pistol Association follows through and lowers the boom on Santa Clara. Any community that tries to make it impossible to exercise one's right to keep and bear arms unless you've got deep pockets is a community that deserves every minute of what comes to them.