Justice Department opens gun-permit investigations into two Connecticut police departments

The Justice Department said Thursday, Oct. 22, that it has opened civil rights investigations into the police departments of Middletown and Waterbury, Connecticut, to determine whether they unnecessarily delay issuing firearm permits to residents.

The probes are being run by the Civil Rights Division’s Second Amendment Section, which has stepped up actions against state and local gun rules in recent weeks. Eight days earlier, the department announced a similar investigation of Pennsauken, New Jersey, and in September it sued Minnesota and its two largest cities over waiting periods to buy firearms.

What the letters say

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who heads the Civil Rights Division, sent notice letters dated Oct. 22 to Middletown Mayor Gene Nocera and Police Chief Erik M. Costa and to Waterbury Mayor Paul K. Pernerewski Jr. and Police Chief Fernando C. Spagnolo Jr.

The letters say the investigations are being conducted under 34 U.S.C. § 12601, the provision of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 that bars law enforcement agencies from engaging in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives people of constitutional rights. Each department acts as a local permitting authority for carry permits under Connecticut law, and the department said it will review the departments’ policies and practices for issuing those permits, including denials and delays in deciding applications.

The letters do not cite specific wait times or case counts. Both say the department has “not reached any conclusions about the subject matter of this investigation.” Federal investigators may interview city and police personnel and contact people who have dealt with the departments, including permit applicants. The municipalities were asked to name a point of contact within five business days of receiving the letters.

If the department finds no pattern or practice of violations, it will close the investigations, according to the letters. If it finds reasonable cause to believe violations are occurring, it will make its findings public and seek a negotiated resolution, and the attorney general could sue in federal court if no agreement is reached.

The legal argument

The department’s announcement relies on the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which it says recognized that the right to bear arms applies outside the home as well as inside it and warned that lengthy wait times in processing license applications can deny ordinary citizens that right. The release says the two departments may be unreasonably denying qualified applicants and forcing them into a potentially years-long appeal process.

“All law-abiding Americans have a constitutional right to bear arms for self-defense,” Dhillon said in the release.

A widening campaign

The Second Amendment Section’s web page says the unit investigates law enforcement agencies for patterns or practices that infringe gun rights and files lawsuits, statements of interest and friend-of-the-court briefs. It lists a series of recent actions, including a Sept. 16 lawsuit against San Jose, California, over a $1,600 firearm permit fee, and suits filed earlier this year against California, Virginia and Montgomery County, Maryland.

In the Minnesota case, announced Sept. 24, the department challenged the state’s permit-to-purchase and waiting-period requirements, which it said impose a 30-day wait under state law for residents who do not intend to carry in public and waits approaching 60 days in St. Paul and Minneapolis for some residents. The Minnesota attorney general’s office criticized the suit, saying the state’s background-check laws were democratically enacted to ensure buyers are eligible and that the lawsuit would make the state less safe, according to FOX 9. St. Paul told the station it does not comment on active litigation.

In the Pennsauken inquiry, opened Oct. 14, Dhillon said the department aims to determine whether allegations of unconstitutional permitting delays are true. That release, like the Connecticut announcement, did not give specific processing times.

The department invites people who believe their Second Amendment rights are being infringed by a state or local government to file a complaint through the Second Amendment Section’s website.