The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is already looking into the excruciatingly long delays in issuing concealed carry permits in Los Angeles County, but the division's attorneys should also direct their attention to what's going on in northern California.
The cost of obtaining a concealed carry permit in California can vary wildly depending on where you live. In Alameda County, for instance, the price tag to apply for a two-year permit runs $195, not including the cost of training and a mandatory psych evaluation. In the city of San Francisco, it's $144 to apply.
In nearby Santa Clara County, however, it costs nearly a thousand dollars ($976 to be precise) to apply, not including training and the psych evaluation. And that's not even the most abusive jurisdiction in the Bay Area.
In what might be a new record, San Jose, CA says the fee for an initial CCW will now be $1,443 (not including the cost of the psychological exam and training):https://t.co/IIQTatBGUw
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) Jul 1, 2025
Again, that's for a permit that's only good for two years. Add in the additional cost of the mandatory 16-hour training course (which runs about $400) and the psychological exam (which can run another $400 or so), and residents are forced to pay more than $2,000 to exercise a fundamental constitutional right.
That, however, isn't the only fee that San Jose gun owners are forced to pay before they can legally keep and bear arms. The city also requires every legal gun owner to carry a firearms liability insurance policy, and has enacted a "Gun Harm Reduction Fee" that every legal gun owner will be required to pay to a private third-party entity; though that portion of the ordinance has yet to be enforced even though it was approved in 2022.
Despite all the draconian rules for gun owners, violent crime in San Jose is trending in the wrong direction.
In the Bay Area, overall crime rates fell significantly last year in Oakland and San Francisco from the year before. Oakland’s overall crime rate remained about twice San Francisco’s and three times San Jose’s. Oakland continued to see violent crime surge even as overall crime rates and property crimes fell.
The rate rose measurably from 2023 to 2024 in San Jose, to a level similar to 2022.
- San Jose’s overall 2024 crime rate was 27% higher than its reported 2023 rate, but the justice department indicated data from that year was incomplete. The 2024 rate is up 8% since 2020 and up 11% from 2003. The violent crime rate was 33% higher than in 2020 and 52% higher than in 2003, but similar to San Francisco’s and far below Oakland’s. The property crime rate was 4% higher than in 2020 and 5% higher than in 2003.
San Jose's prohibitive fees for concealed carry have undoubtably resulted in fewer people exercising their Second Amendment rights, but none of the city's recent gun control efforts have done a damn thing to reduce violent crime.
In addition to the outrageous cost of applying for a carry permit, some applicants have reported waiting more than a year to be approved.
In Bruen, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that, while "shall issue" licensing regimes are presumptively constitutional, they can also violate our Second Amendment rights if applicants are forced to endure lengthy wait times and exorbitant fees. San Jose citizens are subjected to both of those issues, and in addition to litigation from Second Amendment groups like the California Rifle & Pistol Association and its "CCW Reckoning" project, the Department of Justice really does need to investigate and put a halt to the ongoing civil rights abuses that are taking place in the city.
