The City of Glendale has decided that the right to carry a firearm for self-defense comes with a four-figure price tag. Local officials recently raised the application fee for a concealed-carry license from $100 to $1,078. The renewal fee jumped from $50 to $826. When the city adds the required training course, fingerprinting, and a psychological examination, a first-time applicant faces a total cost of about $2,000. A renewal runs about $1,300. Those figures put Glendale among the most expensive jurisdictions in the country for what the Supreme Court has called a fundamental right.
The Fees and the Law
California law allows local authorities to charge fees that cover the reasonable costs of processing an application, issuing the license, and enforcing it. Neighboring places charge far less. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department collects roughly $216 for a new license. Orange County charges about $300. Sacramento County is in the same range. Glendale’s base fee is several times higher, and the city has not publicly produced a cost study that justifies the increase. The same process also requires a psychological examination for every applicant, even though state law treats that step as optional in most cases and limits additional testing on renewals to situations with clear public-safety concerns.
The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Bruen held that ordinary citizens have a right to carry handguns in public for self-defense. Regulations that effectively price out people of ordinary means raise the same constitutional problem as old poll taxes that once limited voting. A $2,000 barrier does not stop the wealthy. It stops everyone else. Glendale’s scheme also leaves room for open-ended discretion by licensing officials, the kind of “may-issue” system Bruen rejected.
READ NOW: Trump DOJ to Glendale, CA: Lawsuit Coming If the City Doesn’t Immediately Halt $2,000 Concealed Carry License Fees — The DOJ informed Glendale, CA, that a lawsuit is coming if the city does not cease enforcement of its egregious…https://t.co/zY5Isa9u2Z
— Top News by CPAC (@TopNewsbyCPAC) October 29, 2026
Harmeet Dhillon’s Response
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Civil Rights Division, sent a formal notice of suit to Glendale’s mayor, police chief, and city attorney on October 28. The letter states that the city cannot impose unconstitutional $2,000 costs to obtain a concealed-carry permit. It gives local officials until November 4 to indicate whether they will negotiate a settlement that lowers the fees. If they do not, the Justice Department has authorized a federal lawsuit against the city and its police department. The complaint would allege that the fee structure denies ordinary citizens their Second Amendment rights and that the police department’s enforcement of it amounts to a pattern or practice of misconduct.
The City of Glendale, California, cannot impose unconstitutional $2,000 costs to obtain a concealed carry permit for lawful firearms. We @CivilRights gave them one week to fix it. Tick tock! https://t.co/xXFyHeerCv
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) October 28, 2026
Dhillon has already pursued similar cases against other California cities that set high carry-permit fees. She has described the right to keep and bear arms as belonging to law-abiding citizens, not a privilege reserved for those who can afford it. The Glendale letter makes the same point in plain terms and sets a short deadline. Whether the city cuts the fees or defends them in court will be clear in a matter of days. Either way, the episode shows how local governments continue to test the limits of a right the courts have already defined.