Torrance is issuing concealed carry licenses!
Significantly, the city has begun issuing carry concealed weapons licenses in the wake of a landmark 2014 court decision that struck down a requirement that members of the public needed “good cause” before receiving such a permit.
In that case, Peruta v. San Diego, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that any law-abiding citizen has the right to carry a handgun for lawful protection in public.
“The Peruta opinion has persuaded many jurisdictions the appropriate policy choice is to allow people to get the CCW (licenses),” said Long Beach-based attorney Chuck Michel, who represents the National Rifle Association in the state and argued the case before the court.
Torrance is among those jurisdictions because the city required an “individualized, concrete threat” before it would issue a CCW permit. In essence, while CCW applicants still must demonstrate “good cause” before receiving one, that bar is not set so high as to require a concrete threat to personal safety.
Former Torrance Police Chief John Neu said in 2012 that he had approved just one CCW permit since becoming chief in 2006. The department had received only about a dozen CCW applications during that time, largely because the strict requirements dissuaded most from even bothering to apply.
But in an indication of how much the climate has changed, since late 2014 Torrance has issued 17 CCW permits while denying just five.
“This action puts Torrance with a number of other cities in the tip of this national discussion about the right to bear arms,” said Michel, who was unaware of the abrupt policy change in the city until he was informed by the Daily Breeze.
Presumably, the decision to keep the policy switch under the radar occurred because cities like Torrance could well be flooded with CCW applications were it more widely known, Michel theorized.
Typically, about 2 to 5 percent of people in any given jurisdiction want a CCW, permit Michel said.
Source: Torrance quietly liberalizes its tough gun laws in wake of two legal cases
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David R. Duringer, JD, LL.M, is a concealed firearm instructor and tax lawyer specializing in business and estate planning. He is managing shareholder at Protective Law Corporation, serving Southern California from its Laguna Hills (Orange County) headquarters and a satellite office in Coronado (San Diego County).
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