The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has opened an investigation into the city of Pennsauken, New Jersey, on Wednesday to determine whether the township police department's handling of firearm permits has become so slow that it violates the Second Amendment.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the division's Second Amendment Section would "defend law-abiding citizens from local authorities who infringe on the right to safely carry legal firearms." She added: "Our investigation aims to discover if allegations of unconstitutional delays in firearm permitting are true, and if so, to fix it." In a statement to the Daily Caller, the DOJ said "individuals and groups" had alleged "extensive delays" in handgun purchase permits and that it had "not reached any conclusions."
The township's website lists the steps for a handgun permit to purchase: two references from outside the applicant's household, a fingerprint appointment within 90 days of applying, and a $25 fee per handgun on top of a $50 firearms purchaser ID card. The page states no processing time. Concealed carry is a separate application that asks for four references.
While the DOJ release doesn't name names, federal lawsuit filed in June 2024 fingers Pennsauken's police chief over handgun permit delays. Christian Benton, the Coalition of New Jersey Firearm Owners, Gun Owners of America and the Gun Owners Foundation filed the federal suit (No. 24-cv-7098) on June 18, 2024, challenging New Jersey's permit system and its one-handgun-a-month limit. Bearing Arms reports that Benton alleges the department took more than four months on two applications, against a 30-day state deadline, and that the case awaits summary-judgment rulings.
The legal hook is a footnote in the Supreme Court's 2022 Bruen opinion. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the Court did not rule out "constitutional challenges to shall-issue regimes where, for example, lengthy wait times in processing license applications or exorbitant fees deny ordinary citizens their right to public carry."
The specific type of investigation the DOJ is conducting - 'pattern-or-practice' - comes from a 1994 crime bill provision that the division has historically aimed at police misconduct. The Second Amendment Section, created inside the division in 2025, now applies it to gun permits. Brady, the gun-control group, has called that a diversion of scarce resources from traditional discrimination cases.
Los Angeles County offers a comparison. The DOJ opened a probe of the sheriff's department in March 2025, when the department said it faced "a significant staffing crisis" with 14 people in its carry-permit unit, and sued that September. The two sides settled on August 13, 2026, after the department added staff and software. DOJ says it now meets state deadlines. DOJ's complaint said applicants waited an average of 281 days, more than nine months, just for processing to begin; the sheriff disputed those figures.
Philadelphia, across the Delaware River from Pennsauken, drew a probe in June. DOJ is examining the city's police department over permit revocations that it called based on "vague" reasons. The mayor's office, the city Law Department and the police department all declined to comment to WHYY.
The section also sued San Jose in September over a roughly $1,600 permit fee and a required psychological exam. Dhillon posted about the case in September:
Residents who believe they were affected can file complaints online.
