Yep. That mostly, from what I've heard, been because of the huge increase in applicants overwhelming the existing number of background investigators normally tasked with CCW backgrounds.
This was especially noticeable when the Peruta case was still wending its way through the circuit court reviews, and for a while it looked like the "good cause" language might be stricken from the Penal Code. Sheriffs were literally being deluged with calls and applications. I knew of one fellow at an agency, who was responsible for receiving and processing applications, and he couldn't keep the voicemail box of his desk phone empty long enough, fast enough, to try to keep up with the continual calls leaving messages about applying for a license, the process of their application, etc. That also meant people calling him from within the agency, for everyday normal business outside of his CCW task, had to play phone tag trying to reach him, as they couldn't leave their messages, either.
I was told how some agencies tried to farm out CCW backgrounds; some brought back retired investigators per diem to do backgrounds; and some transferred staff from other assignments to do backgrounds (always a difficult option, as staffing for all assignments is often lower than needed, just normally). Hiring new people to replace other people to become trained as investigators, just for CCW processing? Expensive, and who's going to pay for those extra positions, long term, once the "rush" and backlog has been resolved?
FWIW, the 2 year waiting period length I read about in the article is probably the longest period I've heard mentioned among agencies, but I heard it mentioned for a SoCA agency over a year ago. Not surprised they're still backlogged, trying to work through their original huge influx of applicants, especially if they're still getting new applicants, on top of that.
I've heard it said that processing and doing the backgrounds would still take time, even if the "good cause" requirement is waived (or stricken), and then the mandated training requirement would still have to be fulfilled. Some agencies are still doing their own CCW training classes, but from what I've heard it increasingly sounds like more of them are farming out some, or all, of the classes to approved "vendors". That's not only going to likely cost more to the applicant (vendors are doing it to make money, even if supplemental), and take up vendor time and scheduling for the classroom training, but then there's the matter of the vendors needing to have access to public/private ranges where they can perform their qual course portions of the training classes (although some agencies may still hold their own quals). Those things are still likely to result in some extended time frames due to increased numbers of applicants.
