Press release from the Calguns Foundation :

San Carlos, CA (March 9, 2012) – Continuing its Carry License Sunshine and Compliance Initiative, The Calguns Foundation (CGF) has filed a lawsuit today in Los Angeles Superior Court against Los Angeles Sheriff Leroy “Lee” Baca [above], the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and Los Angeles County. The case, entitled Jennifer Lu, et al. v. County of Los Angeles, et al., challenges the Sheriff’s ban on accepting and processing applications for carry licenses submitted by city residents . . .

The Calguns Foundation is joined in the lawsuit, by three individual plaintiffs.

“Sheriff Baca made the unfortunate decision to repeat historical failure,” noted CGF Chairman Gene Hoffman. “Apparently, the Sheriff and County do not feel bound to follow the precedent they set when the California Court of Appeals ruled against them in 1976. We look forward to refreshing their memory.”

In the case of Salute v. Pitchess, the Court held that “[i]t is the duty of the sheriff to make . . . an investigation and determination, on an individual basis, on every application” for a handgun carry license. Then-Los Angeles Sheriff Peter Pitchess had “a fixed policy of not granting applications . . . … except in a limited number of cases.”

California requires that people who desire to carry a handgun for self defense be licensed by the sheriff of the county in which they reside, or, at the applicants’ option, they can apply to their city’s chief of police. However, sheriffs cannot require applicants to first apply to and be denied by a city’s chief of police as a prerequisite to application.

“The State of California very intentionally established a standardized carry license framework: if you’re a sheriff, you have a duty to administer the carry license program for all residents of your county,” clarified Brandon Combs, an officer of CGF and director of the Carry License Initiative. “Sheriff Baca’s intent in enforcing these unlawful regulations is quite clear: make it as difficult as possible for law-abiding residents of Los Angeles County to defend their lives and those of their families. Not only does he treat some deserving applicants differently than others, he uses the rejections by cities’ chiefs of police – that his policy requires – as evidence against the applicants when they apply to him.”

“Jennifer Lu and the other plaintiffs have every reason to desire a handgun carry license, not the least of which is that it is their fundamental right under the Constitution as Federal courts in both West Virginia and Maryland ruled earlier this week,” said Jason Davis, attorney for the plaintiffs. “Sheriff Baca is circumventing state and constitutional law, and we’re confident that this case will bear that out.”

A copy of the complaint and case filings can be downloaded at http://bit.ly/lu_v_baca

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31 COMMENTS

    • We expect this case will lead to a positive outcome for the plaintiffs and all Los Angeles County residents. Should other jurisdictions not get the message, we’ll be happy to bring those recalcitrant licensing authorities before a court as well.

      -Brandon

    • Case law from MD striking down that state’s “may issue” permit on the grounds that the state’s ban on open carry AND requirement of a CCW license are inherently inconsistent with hunting and militia functions that are protected by the 2nd Amendment is going to spawn a rash of cases like this. It’s likely that CA, IL, and other “may issue” states will see their laws crumble unless they move to permit open carry.

  2. Ah, again we see the arrogance and ambition of the “five star cop”. I guess his brief stint in the Marine Reserve left a lasting desire to put a constellation on his shoulder.

    It’s too bad the this dude can’t be held fully accountable for his bigoted, anti-civil rights positions because of his qualified immunity. Again, the tax payers will be left holding the bag for his short sighted, cavalier, discriminatory and reckless behavior.

    Good on CalGuns for hammering away at their fortress of injustice and irrationality. We may be slowly tearing down the walls of that fortress one stone at a time, but tear it down we will.

    • Stars on his collar, stars on his sleeves, I wonder if he has stars tatooed anywhere? Just my personal observation, but it seems the more stars the head LEO has on his uniform, the more “full of himself” he tends to be.

    • He needs a circular, 10-star constellation tattooed on his forehead! THAT will teach Douglas MacArthur who the REAL general is!

  5. When I was a kid, my mom put a chart on the fridge. When I cleaned my room or put away the dishes she’d be happy and put a little gold star sticker on the chart.

    I like Sheriff Baca’s uniform. He must put away a lot of dishes. His mom must be so happy.

    • you can say that againg ,yes he has “put a lots of dishes away “but not becouse of hes mom ask ,G i dont think he s has one,then NO TIENE MADRE ,but what he does have & lots are hes BOYS he has around 3000 boys wich is very good. i tell u more but then those boys can be very very mean! they like hurting ppl

  6. Three cheers for Calguns and best of luck with the lawsuit! It’s so much harder for us to realize our constitutional rights when our “boys in blue” forget who they’re supposed to be serving.

  8. Any chance for a Woollard v. Sheridan in California?

    I watch that show “Wild Justice” on the NatGeo channel all the time. It’s about California wildlife troopers. The top two crimes they deal with on a daily basis are: 1) someone carrying a loaded gun, 2) marijuana posession. If you have a medical marijuana card, which are practically shall issue, they can’t touch the pot. Think about if California made CCW shall issue, or at least as easy to get as a medical marijuana card.

    • Yes. Actually, the first 2A “bear” case filed post-incorporation was our lawsuit of Deanna Sykes v. Sacramento County Sheriff McGinness, now Adam Richards v. Yolo County Sheriff Ed Prieto, currently at the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The case is fully briefed and stayed pending the outcome of Nordyke v. King, which is being argued before an en banc Court on March 19.

      (Sacramento County settled out of our case by going “shall issue”.)

      Attorney Alan Gura – who won Heller, McDonald, Ezell, and recently Woollard at the district court – is the lead counsel on the case. Second chair is attorney Don Kilmer.

      Richards: http://wiki.calgunsfoundation.org/Richards_v._Prieto

      -Brandon

  9. This sheriff guy — who is spitting on The Bill of Rights — has as many stars on his shirt as a five-star general.

  10. We’re hopefully one step closer to making CA a shall – issue state. Our state may be on the left, but thank God that many people here don’t think that way.

  11. Even stars on his sleeves. Maybe he got fashion advice from Gaddafi?

    You couldn’t pay me enough to live in Cali now (and I did for 3 years while in the Navy).

  12. Look at the posture and uniform in the pic. His arms folded, the clenched jaw, that baleful stare, more stars than MGM. I’m thinking that Sheriff Kaka Baca has more than a wee touch of Mussolini in him.

    Now if he could only get the trains to run on time . . . .

    • Baca reminds me of the dude that I commented on last September, one Field Marshall Scott Von Thompson of the Camden NJ Stasi.

      “Nice hat. What’s with the three stars? It always amuses me when I see these civilians pretending like they’re generals, and a lieutenant general at that.

      Note the cold, steely, piercing, and dare I say, Aryan gaze. The tight jaw, the pursed lips, the un-naturally drooping shoulders. Now there’s a man who means business. Perhaps he’s passing a stone.”

      They’re all cut from the same cloth, they are.

      Back in ’09 my daughter and I were doing some camping out west. One day we were driving through this smallish town in western Montana. As we were coming up on the town, the speed limit went from 55 to 25. The classic revenue generating speed trap. I didn’t decelerate rapidly enough and low and behold, we got nailed. I pulled over and who should approach our car but the Chief himself, all spiffed up with the cap with the scrambled eggs and sporting four stars on his collar and epaulettes. He looked to me to be well in his 60’s. Nice enough enough guy when he noticed my daughter in the back seat and all of our backpacking gear; he let me off with a warning after he ran me. But seriously, four stars for a town with a population that’s maybe a few percent of the population of my neighborhood? Sheesh!!

      What is it with all of these vain-glorious nincompoops?

  13. Sheriff Baca is circumventing state and constitutional law, and we’re confident that this case will bear that out.”

    And he’s ugly too.

    • Technically it would not be a K, but in hiragana or katakana… And the literal translation is “fool”… they don’t have the F-Word in Japanese…. But point taken 🙂

      • Thank you for the input, but since I’ve lived here for a total of about 18 years, I’m pretty sure I understand the language pretty well. So, by your comments I take it that you’re unaware that Japanese characters are also written in “Romaji” (literally “roman letters”) in order to be readable by non-Japanese, or that Japanese keyboards also use Romaji for direct imput before the words are transcribed into kanji or kana. It’s true they don’t “have” the word “f____n”, but the base word “f___” is very well known, understood as a naughty word, and even sometimes used on comedy and variety tv shows for “impact”; you can also find it commonly written in graffiti (in Romaji, not kana), even if the exact “literal” meaning is not fully comprehended by the young rascals who employ it. My translation was adjusted to better describe the mind-set of the star-studded a-hole that is the topic of this thread.

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