D.C. police have granted eight people permits to carry concealed firearms in public in the city since the department began accepting applications in October, according to figures released Tuesday.

The eight recipients are the first people licensed by the city to carry guns in several decades. The D.C. Council voted unanimously in September to establish a permitting structure after a federal judge struck down the city’s ban on carrying weapons.

Police on Tuesday said they denied permits to 11 applicants. Sixty-six people applied — 34 D.C residents and 32 nonresidents — and most cases are pending. The numbers were first reported by WAMU (88.5 FM), the public radio station of American University. A police spokeswoman confirmed their accuracy.

The District declined to make public a list of people applying for a permit, and it has not identified those who were accepted or those turned down.

People who want to carry a concealed weapon in the District must be residents with a registered handgun or nonresidents with a state carry license.

Applicants are required to demonstrate “good reason to fear injury to his or her person or property” or “any other proper reason for carrying a pistol.” They also have to meet rigorous background checks and training requirements. While in the city, permit holders are not allowed to carry guns in schools, hospitals, government buildings, on public transportation, in stadiums or in establishments that sell alcoholic beverages.

Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) said the process of obtaining a permit is one of the most restrictive in the nation, with regulations modeled on those in Maryland, New York and New Jersey, all states that require applicants to give a good reason to carry a weapon.

Alan Gura, the attorney for those who challenged the ban, said the number of applicants is proof that “the process is not constitutional” because it is too restrictive. “Obviously, the public doesn’t have a great deal of confidence that licenses are readily available,” Gura said.

Mendelson said of Gura’s comments: “He must be thinking that everybody should be able to carry a firearm. “There is nothing in the law that prevents anyone from applying. . . . The law was designed to weed out those who don’t have a need to carry.”

D.C. Council member Kenyan R. McDuffie (D Ward-5), chairman of the public safety committee, said in a statement that “while I do not support the right of an individual to carry a hidden pistol, it appears that our recent legislation to regulate concealed guns is working.”

The permit process, however, is far from settled. Gura is awaiting rulings from U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr. on efforts to permanently enjoin the District from enforcing the regulations for carry permits and to hold the District in contempt for allegedly failing to follow the judge’s instructions when preparing the new law.

For its part, the District has appealed Scullin’s ruling overturning the carry ban to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. City officials say they believe that the permit law satisfies the judge’s ruling.