There are currently three New Jersey Republican gubernatorial candidates eyeing their party’s nomination in 2025, and I've recently spoken with two of the three (Jack Ciattarelli and Bill Spadea) about their thoughts on the Second Amendment.

The primary election for governor will be held on June 10. Ciattarelli, who was covered when he ran in 2021, only narrowly losing to incumbent Governor Phil Murphy by a few points, has been involved in politics for decades. Spadea, a news personality who formerly ran for a congressional seat, has not held office.

Both candidates spoke strongly about their support for the Second Amendment. Ciattarelli’s full interview can be watched HERE and Spadea’s can be listened to HERE.

While gathering these interviews, Ed “The Trucker” Durr was also contacted and interviewed, prior to him dropping out of the race. If you’re interested in that interview, it can be viewed HERE.

State Senator Jon Bramnick, the other GOP candidate, has not responded to several and repeated attempts to schedule an interview.

When asked, Ciattarelli said he’s not a gun owner but does enjoy going to the range with his family. He said that “we enjoy as a family, clay shooting, very, very much.”

Spadea, when asked about his status as a gun owner, noted “I am a gun guy. I am the only credible Second Amendment candidate in the race. And it's not just because I served in the Marine Corps. It's because I believe in American freedom. The Second Amendment is there to guarantee the First Amendment, and it is absolutely incumbent upon anyone who is able to understand firearms.”

While Spadea touts being a gun owner, he has yet to apply for a New Jersey permit to carry. “No, I have not gone through it,” Spadea noted when asked if he went through the process to get a permit to carry. ”And by design, I know that it's difficult.”

Concerning permitting and how things are done in New Jersey, Spadea said that, “New Jersey should be a Constitutional carry – at the very least, a reciprocal right to carry state.”

Ciattarelli, when asked about reciprocity, was more hesitant than Spadea regarding restriction removal. “There's concern on my part, in the sense that other states don't have the background check system that we do, and we know that there's a mental health crisis all across the country,” Ciatarelli said. “So the reciprocity thing[] concerns me. But again, it's my job to listen. If people lay my concerns, because they tell me ‘this,’ so they tell me that based on the facts they present, I'm all ears. But based on what I know today, the reciprocity does concern me, because other states do not have the background check system we do.”

One of the barriers to the Second Amendment in New Jersey is a still utilized subjective standard. That standard is used by police chiefs and issuing authorities to deny people their rights to purchase, possess, and even carry firearms in the Garden State.

Spadea and Ciattarelli were both asked about data recently uncovered by a non-profit, Rise Against Hate. RAH found that Black applicants are 10 to 50 times more likely to be denied permits to carry in New Jersey under the subjective “public safety” clause in the law. These denials come after applicants have already passed multiple background checks to get their firearms identification cards, pistol purchase permits, and N.J. NICS when buying a handgun.

“I wouldn't even address a ridiculous, out of context attack on gun rights by pretending that somehow the process is racist without looking at the reality of what are the questions being asked? Why were these folks denied? I mean, it's very easy to use skin color as a means of riling people up, getting people upset, race baiting, pitting one group against another,” Spadea said when confronted with the data. “You know, we see this in the DEI hiring, which is why, thankfully, President Trump got rid of it. I'm going to get rid of it on day one in New Jersey. This idea of baiting people based on race is really disgusting. It's disingenuous.”

Ciattarelli did not mince words on dealing with the subjective denials. “That sounds like profiling to me, and profiling is illegal, so if that's going on, it needs to stop immediately,” Ciattarelli declared. “You know, yesterday, I was at the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey's gubernatorial panel, and we're hearing about how people in certain zip codes or with certain type[s] of backgrounds pay higher car insurance, even if they've got a perfectly fine driving record.

“Any and all forms of profiling are wrong, and any law-abiding citizen who's applied for the gun permit should get their gun permit. One thing I will do is get the state police to work in closer partnership with our local PDs in accelerating the gun permit application process. In many cases, we know it's taking too long.”

Spadea said that he’s a proponent of Constitutional or permitless carry, but when confronted with the subjective nature of the denials of Black applicants, he seemed to give deference to the issuing authority – even after being told these were people who already had firearm identification cards and the denials were non-criminal and opinion based.

“I know a lot of these chiefs of police. I know a lot of the state troopers. I know a lot of these guys that are behind the application, that are there to make the approvals, and they're upstanding and outstanding, upstanding citizens and outstanding members of law enforcement. And I would believe there’s something much more to this,” Spadea said when the subjectivity of the denials was further pressed. “I believe that something like that is very subjective, because there – what's the time distance? [...] Did they all get the firearms ID card on the same day? They all applied and were all of them rejected for the same exact reason? But 10 to one, a Black applicant got denied over a white applicant? Too much missing.”

Both candidates were asked what are the biggest challenges for New Jersey gun owners today and going forward.

“Well, the biggest challenge right now is that you are, you have a state that is controlled by woke, left-wing Democrats and the weak Republicans who let them walk all over our rights,” Spadea said of the current state of affairs. “You know, there are too many Republicans, and you know, I know, hopefully you'll get to interview all of the candidates for governor, and maybe one of the questions to Jack Ciattarelli is why he voted to override a Christie veto of gun legislation, of added regulation on the backs of legal, legal, law-abiding. So much as you've gotta disconnect in Trenton as governor, that disconnect will be repaired, because you will have one of your own in the Executive Mansion.”

Ciattarelli has a shared view about who’s been in control of the state and that being one of the biggest threats to the Second Amendment in New Jersey.

“The biggest threat is a continued Democratic majority in the state legislature will be seen for 30 years, and it's why the Second Amendment has been under attack here in New Jersey. And so I'm all about winning, not just the governorship, John. My job is to produce coattails and produce Republican seats in the majority in the legislature, and I'm not ruling out a majority in the Assembly this year after this year's election,” Ciattarelli said. “Back in 2021 with a little bit of wind in my face, we flipped eight seats in the state legislature, including beating the longest sitting state senate president in the country. If we could flip eight seats with the wind in our face, we can flip 13 seats with the wind down at our back, and I do believe it's at our back, and with 13 seats more than we currently have, we get something we haven't had in three decades, a Republican majority in our state legislature. When we have that, people who support the Second Amendment can feel better about New Jersey.”

When it comes to things that can be done as the governor of New Jersey, the candidates were asked what they’d do to help further aid gun owners in New Jersey.

Spadea noted that having the right person serving as attorney general would be a priority, as well as appointing good prosecutors. “I can use the executive order, and the governor in New Jersey has a tremendous amount of power when it comes to executive orders,” Spadea said. “We will reduce the burden on law-abiding citizens and expedite their ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights by reducing the burden of regulation.”

Ciattarelli stated he had a different approach, one that includes gun owners more directly. “My first job, not only as a candidate but as governor, is to listen, and you can't possibly be well versed in every single issue, because there are so many today, and any candidate [that] tells you they've got all the answers is lying to you,” Ciattarelli admitted. “What I do, I think, particularly well, not to be modest, is listen. So I'll sit down as governor with gun owners, with Second Amendment society people, and they need to tell me what laws need to be changed. Either because they're not reasonable, because they infringe on people's Second Amendment rights, or because they're not working. And after I've heard all that, we will certainly advocate for those gun owners.”

The topic of NYSRPA v Bruen was brought up. When asked about the decision, both candidates had some strong feelings on the topic.

Ciattarelli said:

I think it revealed what a hypocrite Phil Murphy truly is. When this decision came down, he said, "Watch now, there's gonna be a significant rise in violent crime." And yet, three months ago, he held a press conference talking about how violent crime is down in New Jersey. That's the Phil Murphy that we've come to know and not at all respect because it's hypocrisy. So people have a right, again, to defend themselves. They have a right to bear arms. Supreme Court made that decision, and we've not seen any type of rise in violent crime across New Jersey. We have seen a rise in non-violent crime like break-ins and car thefts. But I'll appoint an attorney general and 21 county prosecutors that are with me in supporting the Second Amendment. But also in terms of keeping our communit[ies] safe. We're getting rid of cashless bail – all that's done is created professional criminals.

Spadea said:

What Murphy and the Democrats and the weak Republicans allowed to happen is an insane limitation on where those firearms can be carried. So we've gotta wake up and recognize that there are soft targets in our society, and those soft targets are best protected by making them harder for bad guys to get in. But you gotta supplement the hardening of these targets by making sure that law-abiding, legal citizens who want to protect and defend are empowered to do that. You know, everyone I've talked to that had to go through the massive regulatory hoops to get that right to carry – the governor and  his shills in this, in the legislature have made it very, very challenging. So we're going to loosen the regulatory and the administrative burden to comply fully with the intention of the Supreme Court, which, in a sense, said that [the] government cannot interfere with your legal Constitutional right.

Before concluding, both candidates were asked if they had any parting words to share.

Spadea said:

John, I'm going to use this time just to share a story with those listening to this that when I was covering Chasing News on Fox TV. and then hosting that show, there was a story about a young woman, 27, 28, years old, mom of two, and the nanny cam caught [that] she's walking around, getting her baby to sleep, the toddler’s asleep in a car seat, and some scumbag criminal busts through the door and assaults her. Kicks the kid, hurts the children, and robs her and leaves. And right away, a lot of Second Amendment advocates said, "This is why we need a right to carry."

Let me be clear with everyone. I don't want to live in a state where a 27-year-old mother of two has to walk around her living room with a loaded firearm.

I'm going to declare a public safety state of emergency, and we are going to suspend bail reform. We are going to address mental health issues. We are going to keep the bad guys behind bars as long as we can. We are going to protect our neighborhoods. I am going to hire more police officers. I am going to change the rules of engagement so our cops can go after these perps. That's what we're going to do to solve the problem. Now, I want people to be able to exercise their Second Amendment right, and they should be able to do that undeterred and uninhibited if they are a legal, law-abiding person. But we need to make safer streets, and the way we do that is we empower law enforcement and we get the bad guys put behind bars longer.

Ciattarelli’s parting words were:

My job is to create this environment here in New Jersey where people feel confident they can achieve their American dream. Whether it's the education they seek. Living here, raising a family here. Starting a business here. Exercising their Second Amendment rights here. So I want people feeling confident that this is a state in which they can do all those things – and the Ciattarelli’s have been very fortunate.

But the other thing I always like to say, John, is that you know this, the governorship of New Jersey is not a stepping stone for me. Governors on both sides of the aisle over the last 40 years, have used our governorship to try to get somewhere else. Whether it's U.S. Senate or presidency. This is my last stop. New Jersey's home. Always has been, always will be. I didn't even leave to go to college. I went to Seton Hall. 

So when this is all over, I'm going to the beach in Surf City. You don't need to worry about me getting distracted because I want to run for Congress, Senate, President, or write a book. I don't want any of those things. I just want to fix the state we all love.

Senator John Bramnick – himself – and his campaign manager, have both ignored multiple requests for an interview. Bramnick has a long history as a lawmaker, and he has a record on the Second Amendment that voters can look up on their own.

The only peek into Bramnick’s stance on the Second Amendment we’ll share came during an interview on Gun For Hire Radio. When discussing Bramnick’s manager ignoring interview requests, show host Anthony Colandro – founder and co-owner of Gun For Hire at the Woodland Park Range – weighed in on the issue. 

“Not only is Bramnick a gun owner,” Colandro said, “But Bramnick qualified [for his permit to carry] at Gun For Hire, and I have a direct line to Bramnick. So you're going to email me the contact information, and I'm going to text message John Bramnick [about this].”

The 2025 gubernatorial primaries are going to be held on June 10th. Readers are invited to tune into the full interviews of Ciattarelli HERE, and Spadea HERE. The videos are also embedded below. Ed Durr, while he dropped from the race prior to publication, his interview is available HERE. More about Jack Ciattarelli and Bill Spadea can be learned at their respective webpages.