New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin launched a gun-free zone registry and placard campaign in 2024. Does a letter that has surfaced prove he’s coercing favored speech though his office?
A non-compulsory gun-free zone initiative was launched in March 2024, aimed mainly at businesses. It allows them to register as a "no guns allowed" zone and they would receive stickers to post. Some of the listed registrants were interesting, with hundreds of out-of-state addresses and/or fake business names. Unverified rumors also circulated that police departments were compelling businesses to post stickers.
Now Bearing Arms has obtained what appears to be an authentic letter from Platkin’s office and the language flirts with coercing speech.
The letter is dated October 9, 2025 and was addressed to the Mercer County Prosecutor's office. Attorney General Platkin’s letter celebrated his “major victory” before the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in the combined Koons and Siegel v. Platkin cases. The Third Circuit delivered an opinion affirming most of their stay of a district court’s preliminary injunction. Platkin said that victory was in defending “New Jersey’s ‘Sensitive Place Law’ … which prohibits the carrying of concealed weapons in specific public locations …”
“To deter concealed carrying in restricted locations and foster the sense of public safety that the law aims to promote, we created and strongly encourage the use of ‘Gun Free Zone’ decals to continue to notify the public of gun-free zones,” the letter says. “As such, enclosed you will find Gun Free Zone decals that may be used or distributed in your jurisdiction.”
Platkin further noted that he encourages the prosecutor’s office to share the decals with the municipal police departments “so members of the public may easily obtain a Gun Free Zone decal at their local police department." Businesses getting stickers without applying for them would preclude them from the publicly accessible — via information request — database.
The letter was closed out with Platkin stating: “Thank you for your continued partnership in promoting gun safety and keeping firearms out of sensitive spaces protected by the law.”
Attorney General Platkin’s press office was contacted for comment and asked to confirm the authenticity of the letter. The office did not respond to the requests.
In the summer of 2024 Open Public Records Requests were filed with the Office of the Attorney General. The requests were seeking any directives or letters that may pertain to the AG’s office compelling businesses or entities to register as gun free zones. Several requests were denied, however two persisted and were answered six months later.
Those requests resulted in them providing a document that was already publicly available. “AN 2024-01 – Notice to the Industry Regarding Firearms in Bars and Restaurants” is the name of the document and within it the Attorney General states that businesses selling alcohol for consumption on the premises "are encouraged to post signs" at their locations "stating that under New Jersey law firearms are not permitted on the premises.
“Signs and/or stickers should be conspicuously posted at the primary entrance(s) of the establishment,” the letter said in part.
The only problem with that is, that’s not in the law. While the AG's letter states that his office "has created Gun Free Zone stickers that may be used to effectuate the notice described above," Platkin also meticulously used the words “should” and "encouraged" in his correspondence. A coercion?
National Rifle Association v. Vullo specifically deals with governmental entities getting involved with speech they don’t find agreeable. The question that needs to be asked: are the attorney general’s actions akin to trying “‘to achieve the suppression’ of disfavored speech”? If so, NRA v. Vullo says that violates the First Amendment.
Coercing businesses to post gun free zone stickers might be within the spirit of NRA v. Vullo — especially if they’re a business worried about getting issued a license from the very same agency. Businesses that hold liquor licenses being "encouraged" to post gun free zone stickers that "should be conspicuously posted," even though it’s not the law, might be chilled into doing so because the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control falls under the control of the attorney general.
A new Open Public Records Act request was filed seeking any new correspondence from the Attorney General’s office concerning gun free zone stickers. The date range of the request covers records from May 2, 2024 to present date, a period that covers the gap from the prior request. This request should capture the October 9 letter.
The actions of Attorney General Matthew Platkin at a minimum signal discontent with a right he finds disfavors. Do these pieces of correspondence amount to anything more than gentile reminders and victory laps? The appropriateness of sending letters to prosecutors while gloating over alleged legal victories is suspect. The outcome of the latest Open Public Records Act request could be quite telling in how this story is fully realized and hope to have an update in the near future.
Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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