Carrying a firearm in the Garden State is coming with some real growing pains for some people. That’s understandable – somewhat. Something that was completely verboten and looked down upon as being strictly criminal, is now legal when someone bears a permit to carry. We are battling both legal and social battles, and everyone looking back at gun owners needs to just accept the reality that being armed is a normal part of everyday life. One Tik Tok personality recently chronicled an encounter he said he had with a Toms River, New Jersey police officer.

To be completely fair, which – eh, probably shouldn’t have to be fair, because the police are supposed to know the laws, including case laws – New Jersey’s carry laws are convoluted and in a period of flux. Since the Attorney General of New Jersey dropped the enforcement of the “justifiable need” clause to get a permit to carry, and the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs successfully litigated the statute out of law, the legislators introduced the “carry-killer” law. That law was enacted and has found itself subject to two temporary restraining orders, a preliminary injunction, and since has had sections of the injunction stayed. I don’t think any of that should be an excuse for a police officer to harass a lawfully permitted carrier in New Jersey, as was alleged.

Tik Tok personality EvoJoe, on his popular daily_driven_dreamcars channel, last week chronicled an encounter he said he had while getting pulled over.

So today, I was driving down my actual street. It’s a 35 mile an hour zone. And I was going 35 miles an hour. I was in my pickup truck. No reason to speed. I was actually just heading to Dunkin Donuts, fat people problems, when this young man pulled me over and said that I was doing 46 miles an hour and a 35. Now of course I wasn’t doing 46 miles an hour and a 35 and I had a radar detector in my truck. It wasn’t going off. Like any good self respecting citizen I pulled over as soon as the boys put put their lights on. The officer came to the window, I gave him my license, registration, my family gold card, and my concealed carry permit for the state of New Jersey. I had my hands on the steering wheel, and I explained to him that I was carrying a firearm on my left hip. With that officer Weg says, “Go ahead and sit tight for me. I’ll be right back with you.” I didn’t think much of it. I’ve been pulled over many of times, trust me with that. About 5 – 10 minutes goes by, multiple officers start pulling up. A female cop is outside of her car and unholsters her weapon. I started scratching my head at this point I’m like, “am I trouble?”

EvoJoe further explained in the video that New Jersey’s law is still new to everyone. As I pointed out, not only is this all new behavior, what is and is not legal has changed several times in the last year.

So he comes back to my window about 20 minutes later, keeps me on the side of the road much longer than necessary, comes to my window and starts explaining to me that I can’t have my firearm on my hip while driving my car in the state of New Jersey. With that I explained to him, “I’m very well educated in this law, I certainly wouldn’t be carrying my firearm, if I wasn’t allowed to be doing so,” to which he explained that he called into the sergeant and the sergeant said that “in order to carry my firearm in the car in the state of New Jersey, that the ammunition has to be locked up in one compartment the firearm has to be locked up in another compartment.” Now we know as concealed carry holders, we don’t need to do that. That is specifically for transport of a firearm to and from the range if you don’t have your concealed carry. So we do a little bit of back and forth. And I explained to officer Weg I’m not having court here on the side of the road with you.

This is where some massive points of confusion can come into play. Important to note, none of what’s being said here is legal advice, and checking with a competent attorney on the subject of New Jersey firearms law should be done for clarification.

Part of the aforementioned carry-killer law involved provisions on how permit holders were to be required to transport their firearm in a vehicle. The new law, NJ Rev Stat § 2C:58-4.6 (2022)7b: states the following:

(1) A person, other than a person lawfully carrying a firearm within the authorized scope of an exemption set forth in subsection a., c., or l. of N.J.S.2C:39-6, who is otherwise authorized under the law to carry or transport a firearm shall not do so while in a vehicle in New Jersey, unless the handgun is unloaded and contained in a closed and securely fastened case, gunbox, or locked unloaded in the trunk of the vehicle.

That’s the current law on the books. That portion of the law, however, was enjoined by Judge Marie Bumb on May 16, 2023:

ORDERED that Plaintiffs’ Motions for a Preliminary Injunction to enjoin N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2C:58-4.6(a)(6), (a)(9) (zoos only), (a)(10) (to include N.J. Admin. Code § 7:2-2.17(b), but excluding playgrounds), (a)(12), (a)(15), (a)(17), (a)(18) (to include N.J. Admin. Code §69D-1.13), (a)(21) (only as to facilities set forth in Plaintiffs’ declarations), (a)(23), (a)(24) (only as to private property that is held open to the public), id. § 2C:58-4.6(b)(1) (prohibition on functional firearms in vehicles), id. § 2C:58-4(c) (in-person interview requirement of carry permit applicant’s character endorsers); id. §§ 2C:58-4(d)(4), 2C:58-4.3 (Insurance Mandate), and N.J. Admin. Code § 7:25-5.23(f)(5) (prohibition on functional firearms in vehicles) are GRANTED; and it is

Since the injunction at the Federal District Court of New Jersey, the state appealed to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals seeking an emergency stay. The stay was granted in part and rejected in part. The June 20th, 2023 stay stated:

The Emergency Motion for Stay Pending Appeal is hereby GRANTED in part and DENIED in part. The requested stay is GRANTED as to the preliminary injunction of N.J. Stat. Ann. §§ 2C:58-4.6(a)(6), (a)(9), (a)(10), (a)(12), (a)(15), (a)(17), (a)(18), (a)(21), as we conclude the applicable factors warrant such a stay, see In re Revel AC, Inc., 802 F.3d 558, 568 (3d Cir. 2015). The requested stay is otherwise DENIED.

Absent from the list of what the Third Circuit Court was willing to allow to be enforced were the prohibitions on car carry. While what’s been alleged about Officer Weg’s understanding of the law might be true according to the statute, he, as well as the sergeant that was called, they both are grossly mistaken on the enforceability of the law. EvoJoe was correct in his assertions about the current legality of car carry in New Jersey.

Where EvoJoe is going to really make some waves here is how he finished off his story about what he alleged happened:

At any rate, he tells me I’ll need to disassemble the firearm and put it away after he leaves and that he should be arresting me for this offense to which I rebutted with. “Please do.” Which he knew better. He did. And then he swings to me, he says, “In lieu of arresting you today, I’m giving you this speeding ticket.” Are you starting to see the pattern? The other police officer showed up and told him he was wrong. But he couldn’t just let me go. So you had to give me that ticket. Now I can 100% guarantee you that he was not radaring me and did not have me on his radar gun. Was it even calibrated? Did you use it? Was I going 46? Are you sure this is the argument you want to have in court? Now of course everything is on body camera. And they have him saying, “In lieu of arresting you today, I’m gonna give you this ticket.” What? But – Come on! This is how we’re policing now?

EvoJoe explained that subsequent to the encounter, he requested to talk to the chief of police over at Toms River, but that request was denied. He did say, however, that he talked to the sergeant who misadvised Officer Weg, and “he admitted that he misinformed him and he was extremely apologetic for doing so. And he also explained that the State Police aren’t informing them on the case laws and all the up-to-date information and the latest information that he has is on the State Police website.”

Following his conversation with the Toms River police sergeant he spoke with, he relayed his story to the State Police, and they told him that, “they are on the way to Toms River Township right now, to inform the officers and educate them on the concealed carry laws.” EvoJoe stated that he personally thought the NJSP coming to educate the department was commendable.

Many years ago I met with an attorney that specializes in firearm law. I was running some scenarios past him and when I got to one, he said, “You’d completely win that one in court. Guaranteed.” To which I replied, “I’m here today to make sure I don’t end up in court. If I end up in court, I’ve already lost.” The point is, what is and is not legal is one set of parameters we have to live by and comport with. Then, there’s what the police think is or is not legal, and then there’s what a prosecutor thinks they could get away with charging people. Regardless of what the law is, we absolutely need to safeguard ourselves when we are living an armed lifestyle. That means thinking about these kinds of scenarios and how we’ll react as individuals.

Through a colleague, I managed to get word over to EvoJoe about wanting to discuss the situation further with him. He did indicate a willingness to chat, however, we were not able to connect.

The phrase, “When seconds count, help is minutes away,” danced through my mind when I called the Toms River Police Department for comment. Oftentimes a public information officer might have a canned response to something like the allegations that EvoJoe made, and I wanted to get their position on the encounter. After waiting on hold for dispatch for over an hour, I finally hung up the phone. 

I don’t know what’s going on over at the Toms River Police Department, but I think we can all agree that waiting on hold for over an hour for dispatch to answer is beyond unacceptable. If anything, my waiting for the police to answer the phone only further solidified the fact that we’re on our own when it comes to our personal safety and makes the argument for us about why we should go about our lives armed.

I also reached out to Toms River Mayor Mo Hill, about the lengthy hold time, and I have not received a response.

Considering we only have one half of the story, I still commend EvoJoe for the cool manner in the way he claims he handled the situation. If everything went down exactly as he said it did, shame on Officer Weg for not knowing the law and then still ticketing EvoJoe – so he had something on him. Shame on the Toms River Police Department for not knowing the current case law as well, and for not answering their phone. 

I do believe that many of the departments out there are doing their best to stay up to date on changes in the law, and are well-intentioned, but things do fall between the cracks. In a state like New Jersey, that’s a big deal when we’re dealing with minimum mandatories of 3-to-10 years on firearm-related offenses.

Let’s hope that going forward the memo gets out to all the police in the Garden State, and further, they pay attention to and respect the rights of law-abiding permit-to-carry holders. Should further information about this story come up, I’ll put out an update in a subsequent post, so stay tuned!

You can check out EvoJoe’s video in the embed below or click HERE.

@daily_driven_dreamcars I uave mad respect for these guys but this …. No way mad disrespectful #cartok #fyp #cars #carcommunity #cartokhub ♬ original sound – EvoJoe