The Department of Justice Updates Information for Issuance of Concealed Carry Licenses

Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has some advice for qualified applicants to avoid possible delays in processing of applications.

MADISON — With almost 37,000 applications for concealed carry licenses having been received by the Department of Justice (DOJ) within the last two weeks, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has some reminders for applicants to ensure their application is processed as smoothly as possible.

“Employees at the DOJ have been working tirelessly to process applications,” Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said, “In an effort to help them approve qualified applicants promptly and efficiently, I encourage people to check out the most common reasons for an application being rejected and thereby, forcing a delay in possible approval for a license.”

Some of the most common reasons for rejection of an application include:

• an applicant using an out-of-state concealed carry license as proof of training but failing to enclose the required affirmation form;
• an applicant failing to completely fill out the concealed carry application, or entering incorrect information such as the birth year;
• an applicant enclosing the required certificate for proof of training but lacking an instructor name or organization on the certificate;
• an applicant using an address on the application that fails to match Wisconsin Department of Transportation records.

The “Concealed Carry” page of the DOJ site also includes an explanation of the changes to the training requirement made by the legislature's Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules. The information is available here.

Before applying, applicants should be aware that proof of training still is required to obtain a concealed carry license.

The DOJ has posted online a more complete list of some of the most common reasons to help others avoid similar delays. The list is available at the following link: