Though the Democrats in control of the New Jersey legislature have done their utmost to make it as difficult as possible to exercise your right to carry, Garden State residents are navigating the maze of red tape and battling the bureaucracy in order to obtain their carry license. In fact, according to the latest data from Attorney General Matthew Platkin (himself no friend to gun owners), concealed carry is still gaining in popularity more than two years after the Bruen decision negated New Jersey's "may issue" permitting system.
There were 4,282 carry permit applications processed by licensing authorities across New Jersey last month; the highest number recorded in the state's history. The sea change brought about by Bruen is evident when looking at the number of applications approved before the decision was handed down, with the New Jersey Monitor reporting that in the two years prior to Bruen, the highest number of carry applications in a given month was just 102.
Gun rights advocates say as we move farther from the decision, case known as Bruen, they expect more New Jerseyans will seek to carry firearms as “the issue matures” and as legal challenges filed in the wake of the high court’s ruling are settled.
“A lot of people initially were reluctant to apply until the dust settled on the post-Bruen squabble that was going on,” said Scott Bach, executive director of the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs.
Bruen struck down as unconstitutional a New York law that required applicants for concealed carry permits to show their need to carry a handgun. The ruling forced New Jersey lawmakers to rewrite carry laws here to eliminate a requirement that residents show a justifiable neMoed to carry a handgun beyond their home or business, spawning a wave of litigation targeting the state’s other gun restrictions.
New Jersey authorities received 61,751 applications for permits to carry a firearm between the Bruen ruling in June 2022 and last month (some of the increase may be attributable to permit renewal applications, though it’s unclear how much). In the two and a half years before the ruling, the total number of applications was around 1,500.
The Monitor claims that "virtually all of the permit applications New Jersey police have received since Bruen have been approved," though that's not exactly the case. According to the AG's data dashboard, at least 325 applications have been denied, and as Bearing Arms contributor John Petrolino has documented, Black applicants are far more likely to be denied than their white counterparts. Petrolino's research was recently confirmed by the non-profit Rise Against Hate, which found that, statewide, Black applicants are more than ten times as likely to be rejected... often for subjective reasons. As the group noted in its study:
An important consideration with respect to application denials is that in the state of New Jersey, the same criteria are held for firearm identification applications as for the permit to carry applications, and an individual can only apply for a permit to carry a handgun after they have been approved for a firearm identification. As such, an interesting question to contemplate while considering the results of the data analysis is: why were certain individuals denied a permit to carry, particularly for the reason of Public Health, Safety, and Welfare, if they had already met the states standard when they had previously applied for a firearm identification card which has the same application criteria for a permit to carry. An example that depicts the severity of this question is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's own experience with applying for a permit to carry. In 1956, after his house was fire-bombed, Dr. King applied to the local sheriff for a permit to carry a concealed handgun. He was denied on the grounds that he was "unsuitable."
Though there are now more than 60,000 active permit holders in New Jersey, which is a substantial improvement over the pre-Bruen years, the state has yet to reach the 200,000 permits predicted by the head of the state police shortly after the Supreme Court struck down "may issue" statutes. Bach tells the Monitor that he expects the number of permit holders to continue to grow as the state's post-Bruen gun laws are challenged (and hopefully struck down) in the court system and as more people become aware that, yes, it's now more than theoretically possible to exercise your right to bear arms in the Garden State.
The fact that January saw the highest number of carry applications in state history is a very good sign, and evidence that Bach is on to something. The state is off to a good start in 2025, and let's hope that more records are set throughout the year.
