D.C. Police Don't Know How Long It'll Take to Approve Concealed Carry Applications

While applying for my own DC concealed carry permit last week, I was told the city has yet to approve any applicants. Now, it had only been about 3 weeks since the police department began accepting applications and many states take more than a month to complete the process. However, DC allows people to apply before they've completed the required training in order to see whether or not they qualify for a permit under the city's highly restrictive law. So, I thought the process might be expedited. I spoke with DC police Lieutenant Sean Conboy this afternoon to get a better understanding of exactly how the process works.

By Stephen Gutowski·November 20, 2014

D.C. Police Don't Know How Long It'll Take to Approve Concealed Carry Applications

It has been exactly one month since the city of Washington, D.C., began accepting applications for its new concealed carry permit, and the city does not know how long it will take to process those requests.

"There's no internal guideline for how long the process should take at this point," D.C. police Lieutenant Sean Conboy told a Free Beacon reporter today. Lt. Conboy said the department has no stated rule on how long the decision process should take and no information on how long the wait time will be.

"The process is too new for us to gauge wait time." he said.

In addition to complaints about whether a government official ought to be able to decide which law abiding citizens get to carry firearms for their own defense, many gun rights activists have long complained that some states used long wait times to deprive people of permits.

"I’ll probably die of old age by the time I can get a CCW permit approved," Yvonne Freeman told the Orange County Register earlier this year of the California application process. "Maybe that’s what they have in mind."

Lt. Conboy said that D.C. will issue decisions on concealed carry applications. However, he reiterated that the city had "not approved any right now."

There is still confusion about how people will complete the required 16 hours of classroom training and two hours of range training. Conboy said that the city is still working to officially license a trainer, and could not confirm reports from other police officials that such a trainer had been selected for training.