When a court in 2014 struck down a California law requiring concealed carry applicants to show “good cause” for bearing arms in public, some police chiefs stopped accepting applications, fearing they’d be inundated with permit requests.

But even though the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision in June, several law enforcement agencies in the area are still opting to pass the responsibility for these permits on to the county sheriff.

And that has some gun rights advocates claiming the move is wrapping their movement up in red tape.

In the last two years, 10 police chiefs — including in La Verne, Glendora and West Covina — delegated their authority to issue permits to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, according to a sheriff’s spokeswoman.

Some of those chiefs said that if the appeals court upheld the ruling that restricting concealed carry permits violated the Second Amendment, their staffs would not be able to process the expected increase in applications.

“We just don’t have the personnel to do that,” said West Covina police Chief David Faulkner.

In Los Angeles County, a total of 17 police chiefs have entered into agreements with the sheriff to process all applications for licenses, according to Nicole Nishida, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s department. Nishida said in an email that the department has seen a “slight uptick” in the number of chiefs requesting the sheriff take over applications in their cities.

Under California law, any city police chief or county sheriff can issue concealed carry permits, but chiefs are also permitted to relinquish that right to the sheriff of their county.

Besides La Verne — which asked the sheriff’s department to step in only six months ago — other local police departments that have passed on the responsibility of processing concealed carry permits include Pomona and Claremont.

Nishida would not say what’s prompting police chiefs to delegate their authority to the sheriff more now, but some pointed to the court case, an increase in applications and a desire to achieve more consistency in how the permits are issued.

“If you have 45 different law enforcement agencies using 45 different standards, I think that’s a problem for everybody,” said La Verne police Chief Scott Pickwith.

Pickwith said between 2014 and 2016 the city received 17 concealed carry applications, 10 of which he approved.

The time it takes to process the permits is also an issue, said Glendora police Chief Timothy Staab, who received 12 applications this year before deferring to the sheriff. Each takes a minimum of three hours to process — or at least $1,000 worth of staff time.

“The majority of them exceed that,” Staab said. “It doesn’t take very long for the police department to be spending a lot of money on processing (concealed carry permits).”

ARE CHIEFS AVOIDING DEBATE ON GUN RIGHTS?

But local gun rights advocates say the sheriff and police chiefs in Los Angeles County are too restrictive in their consideration of “good cause.” They say chiefs are obstructing their efforts to loosen concealed carry requirements.

“He did that to roadblock us,” said West Covina resident William Elliott, who has lobbied for years to change the way concealed carry permits are issued in the city. “They see that we are getting political power and this is a movement.”

Faulkner said he was not influenced by gun rights discussions in the community or on the City Council, which recently adopted a resolution defining “good cause” as the desire to protect oneself. He added that in addition to the court case and a lack of personnel to handle requests, he felt transferring the authority would save residents money if they were denied by the city and applied again with the sheriff.

Depending on how far applicants get in the process, applying for a license can cost more than $200.

“We felt it was more prudent not to waste their time,” Faulkner said.

Since being appointed chief in 2014, Faulkner has reviewed three concealed carry applications from residents, all of which he denied due to a lack of “good cause.” Between 1978 and 2011, the city received 16 applications, which were denied for the same reason.

HOW IS ‘GOOD CAUSE’ DEFINED?

California is a “may issue” state, meaning local law enforcement agencies use their discretion in issuing concealed carry permits. They create their own processes and definitions for “good cause,” which was ruled constitutional by the appeals court in June, and is interpreted differently across the state and in Southern California.

Faulkner said that when he considered concealed carry applications, he abided by the sheriff’s department definition, which says “good cause” exists “if there is convincing evidence of a clear and present danger to life, or of great bodily harm … which cannot be adequately dealt with by existing law enforcement resources … and which danger would be significantly mitigated by the applicant’s carrying of a concealed firearm,” according to the sheriff’s policy.

In Orange County, where there are currently 9,318 active concealed carry licenses the sheriff issued, “documented instances of threats to personal safety” or “threats to their safety by virtue of their profession, business or status” is enough good cause for a law-abiding citizen to carry a concealed weapon, according to the sheriff’s concealed carry policy manual.

FEW POLICE CHIEFS ISSUE PERMITS

While many city police chiefs in L.A. County still retain their authority to issue permits, the majority of active permits in the state are issued by county sheriffs.

Of the nearly 79,500 active concealed carry permits in California as of July 2015, only 3,503 permits — about 4 percent — were issued by city police chiefs, according to data from the state attorney general’s office.

It is unclear how common it is for police chiefs across the state to delegate their authority to issue permits to county sheriffs. The attorney general’s office does not track the number of agencies who issue concealed carry licenses, but, according to the data, police chiefs in 153 cities were responsible for active permits.

In San Bernardino County, where there were 5,192 active permits issued by the sheriff as of Sept. 1, Redlands Police Chief Mark Garcia is the only municipal chief who issues concealed carry permits, according to sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Bachman.

“The rest of the police departments just refer folks inquiring about it,” Bachman said.

Who can carry concealed weapons in Los Angeles County?

There are currently only 220 active concealed carry permits issued by the Los Angeles County Sheriff and only 50 to 60 of those were issued to residents, according to Nishida. In addition to the standard concealed carry licenses that residents apply for, police chiefs and county sheriffs issue three other kinds of licenses to judges, reserve police officers and people who work but do not live in the issuing authority’s jurisdiction.

“It’s virtually impossible for the average person to get a permit,” said La Verne resident Keith Reeves, whose concealed carry application to the city police was denied for a lack of “good cause.”

Reeves, a university professor and an ordained minister, said he hasn’t applied with the county sheriff because he doubts his application would be approved.

“I just know the reputation of the county, and it’s pretty futile,” he said.

Instead, he hopes that when the chief retires later this year, his replacement will take back the authority to issue permits and would be more open to a self-defense definition for “good cause.”