Bruen and New Jersey

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October 13, 2022. At a press conference today, legislative leaders in the New Jersey state house announced plans to attack and destroy right to carry, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Bruen decision upholding right to carry and making it impossible for states like New Jersey to continue blocking issuance of carry permits.

Although text of proposed legislation was not available when this alert was prepared, legislative leaders described its features, and it sounds strangely similar to (if not worse than) New York’s anti-carry law passed this summer, which was recently stopped in its tracks by an injunction issued by the usually-anti-gun federal district court there.

According to lawmakers, they plan to:

-Ban carry in common public places by labeling them as “sensitive places” (plainly forbidden by Bruen)

-Ban carry inside one’s own car (plainly forbidden by Bruen);

-Ban carry on commercial and private property, unless the property owner posts notices allowing it (plainly unconstitutional);

-Massively increase fees for permits (plainly forbidden by Bruen, and discriminates against low-income citizens);

-Mandate special insurance (which may not even be available) as a pre-condition to exercise constitutional rights (plainly unconstitutional);

-Mandate a new, unusual training requirement (beyond the already-difficult one that has existed for decades) – raises serious constitutional questions.

“These attacks by New Jersey lawmakers are a big middle finger to the U.S Supreme Court,” said ANJRPC Executive Director Scott Bach. “These lawmakers have no respect for the Constitution or the rule of law – they focus on attacking citizens’ rights while setting violent criminals free. We look forward to overturning these measures in court and forcing the state to pay our legal fees.”​