San Francisco approves concealed-carry gun permit
For the first time since a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year, the San Francisco Sheriff ’s Office approved a resident’s application to carry a concealed weapon, known as a CCW permit.
“We can confirm we did approve our first CCW permit Friday,” said Tara Moriarty, a department spokesperson. The applicant is Benjamin Zheng, who works at an automobile body shop in the Tenderloin.
The Supreme Court in June ruled that states with strict gun laws could not force residents to show a special need for selfdefense in order to obtain permits allowing hidden firearms.
That ruling represented a big shift in many jurisdictions in California, including San Francisco, where authorities have routinely turned away applications for CCWs by citing a requirement that residents show “good cause” to need a gun.
For decades, San Francisco’s stance on CCWs was widely known but rarely contested. In 1995, the city granted 13 concealed-carry permits, according to records obtained by The Chronicle. That list included three Superior Court judges, a retired U.S. Army general and several attorneys and investigators.
By 2014, fewer than 10 people had the permits in the city, The Chronicle reported at the time. Applications dwindled to the San Police Department and Sheriff’s Office as people assumed they would be turned down, with the departments sometimes only receiving two or three applications a year.
But after the high court’s ruling, both the Sheriff’s Office and the police force received scores of applications. As the months passed, some accused the agencies of purposefully dragging their feet on the process and began threatening to take the matter to court.
In San Francisco, permit seekers must pass a background check and undergo a psychological evaluation, as well as completing a firearms safety and qualifications training course before receiving a permit.
The sheriff’s approval of a permit seeker’s application doesn’t mean the permit has actually been issued. Zheng said he still needs to complete department required training before receiving the permit.
In an interview Monday, Zheng said the growth in open drug use and dealing in the Tenderloin in recent years prompted him to request the permit.
“It’s just that enhanced level of security,” he said. “I was never a gun guy ... but it’s getting alarming. Drug dealers moved up on my block now. I never saw that until recently.”
The permit application process, he said, was “straightforward — they asked a lot of questions.” The Police Department has not issued any concealed-carry permits since the high court’s ruling, SFPD officials said.
On Monday, CCW advocates said they were pleased to learn the sheriff’s office had approved an application.
“It’s an important symbolic victory, but CRPA is not content with just symbolic victories,” said California Rifle and Pistol Association attorney Kostas Moros. “We will continue to keep the pressure on until every law-abiding applicant has their permit application processed in a reasonable timeframe.”
Andrew Solow, whose efforts to win a permit were covered in The Chronicle in January, said authorities waited too long to begin approving applications for permits. “Hopefully, San Francisco residents who apply for CCW permits in the future won’t have to wait seven months,” he said.
Even as the permits begin to be approved, city and state Democratic lawmakers are working to limit the practice, arguing that increasing the number of people carrying guns in public will endanger them and others.
Supervisor Catherine Stefani told The Chronicle she plans to introduce legislation that would expand a list of “sensitive areas” where residents cannot carry guns, even with a CCW permit. A similar statewide bill pushed by Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, fell just short of passage in August, but supporters say they will try again this year.
In a recently published analysis of past studies of concealed-carry laws, the nonprofit Rand Corp. said places that loosen regulations may see increased homicides.