The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is turning its attention to a New Jersey township that's been accused of taking 90 days or more to process Permit to Purchase applications, which are required before any New Jersey resident can lawfully purchase a handgun.
In a press release, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon says the DOJ has opened an investigation to determine whether Pennsauken deprives citizens of their right to bear arms through "egregious and unjust delays" in issuing firearm licenses.
“I have directed the Civil Rights Division, through our Second Amendment Section, to defend law-abiding citizens from local authorities who infringe on the right to safely carry legal firearms,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Our investigation aims to discover if allegations of unconstitutional delays in firearm permitting are true, and if so, to fix it.”
It is a violation of the Second Amendment for government officials to delay issuing permits to purchase or carry firearms. In 2022, the Supreme Court held in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen that a state’s permitting process is put towards “abusive ends” when “lengthy wait times in processing license applications or exorbitant fees deny ordinary citizens their right to public carry.” Here, it is alleged that Pennsauken, through the Pennsauken Township Police Department, uses just such “abusive ends” to improperly limit Second Amendment rights.
While the DOJ's press release doesn't detail those allegations or who has made them, it appears the investigation may have been prompted, at least in part, by a lawsuit filed in 2024 by a Pennsauken resident named Christian Benton, who was joined by the Coalition of New Jersey Firearm Owners and Gun Owners of America. In the complaint, Benton declared that the police department had taken more than four months to approve two applications for a Permit to Purchase a handgun, even though state law requires those applications to be processed within 30 days.
It's worth noting that Stephen D. Stamboulieh, who was one of the original attorneys for the plaintiffs, is now a part of the Civil Rights Division's Second Amendment Section.
Christian Benton isn't the only resident who's experienced this bureaucratic nightmare when trying to purchase a firearm. Several Reddit users noted similar delays in a thread back in 2024, with one user alleging that the Pennsauken PD has only tasked a single employee with processing all applications.
The Benson litigation directly challenges the existence of New Jersey's permitting scheme as well as its gun rationing law limiting handgun purchases to one every 30 days. Based on the DOJ's language in its press release, the Civil Rights Division and the Second Amendment Section might not go so far as to challenge the constitutionality of the permitting regime and the state's "one-gun-a-month" law, but instead focus on the lengthy delays that residents like Benton face when seeking the police department-issued permission slip required to purchase a handgun in the Garden State. Then again, the DOJ has also taken an interest in Minnesota's "one-gun-a-month" law, so it's entirely possible that the investigation into Pennsauken could lead to a litigation that directly challenges New Jersey's gun rationing scheme.
The Benton case is scheduled for a hearing in mid-January, with the plaintiffs requesting summary judgment and the defendants seeking an outright dismissal of the lawsuit. It will be interesting to see if the DOJ will have wrapped up its investigation by then, and if so, what impact its findings might have on Benton... and perhaps the DOJ's own litigation as well.
Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.
Help us continue to report on their efforts and legislative successes. Join Bearing Arms VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member