After a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling effectively invalidated key portions of New Jersey’s restrictive permitting system for the concealed carry of guns, lawmakers in the state Legislature are moving to pass a new version of the law by the end of the year.
The measure (A4769), supported by Gov. Phil Murphy and fellow Democrats who currently control both houses of the Legislature, has faced stiff opposition from Republican lawmakers and gun rights advocates at a series of lengthy and sometimes raucous public hearings.
On Monday, the measure passed the state Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee along a party-line vote of 8-4.
For decades, New Jersey’s carry laws were among the nation’s most stringent, so much so that few besides retired law enforcement officers could demonstrate the “justifiable need” get a permit.
But the Supreme Court ruled in June to effectively invalidate New York’s concealed carry restrictions — a ruling commonly known as the Bruen decision — making New Jersey’s law vulnerable to legal challenges.
New Jersey’s Democratic leaders responded with a bill to overhaul concealed carry in the state, saying safeguards are needed if more people are carrying guns. Their proposal has support from an array of gun control advocates and law enforcement organizations.
Legislative leaders blew a self-imposed November deadline to move the bill across the finish line, but Monday’s vote sent the bill to the full state Senate, who next meet Dec. 19. If passed then, it would move to the governor’s desk.
Murphy has signaled an intent to sign it.
From there, the measure faces an uncertain legal future. New York’s clean-up bill after the Supreme Court decision remains in legal limbo after a federal judge in November ruled key provisions unconstitutional.
Opponents and supporters of the New Jersey bill alike expect the matter to end up in court as soon as the ink is dry.
“This is going to be challenged, there’s no doubt,” said state Senate President Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, a key sponsor of the bill. “But we believe it struck the right balance and it will meet constitutional muster.”
The proposal would require gun owners in New Jersey seeking to obtain a carry permit to purchase liability insurance and take training courses, while prohibiting people from carrying firearms in a wide range of “sensitive places” in the state, including schools, public parks, courthouses, and bars.
Gun safety advocates told lawmakers those restrictions are crucial to stem gun violence in the Garden State, which has among the fewest per capita gun deaths in the nation, pointing to states with loose permitting laws like Mississippi, which has the highest rate, according to data from the CDC.
Gun rights supporters counter that Massachusetts, which has an even lower per-capita gun death rate than New Jersey, has a permitting system less stringent than the one proposed in New Jersey. They argued the list of prohibited places is so broad that it will lead to confusion and arrests of otherwise law-abiding gun owners.
The proposal would increase a carry permit fee from $50 to $200. Applicants would also be required to pay for their own training and insurance.
State Sen. Declan O’Scanlon, R-Monmouth, said Monday that the proposed fee hikes, compared to other states, were “regressive and way too high.”
Joseph Loporto, who represents the non-profit Safe Way Out, which provides safety consulting and self-defense instruction to domestic violence victims and others, said that when polled, a majority of their clients expressed a need for a carry permit.
“Many of our clients are indigent,” coming from urban centers like Newark, Paterson and Trenton, he said.
“Making this process so hard and expensive is a thinly veiled attempt to restrict the rights of the poor, and that has obvious implications in creating a disparate impact along racial and ethnic lines.”
Lisa Winkler, an organizer with the gun safety group Moms Demand Action, supported the bill.
“The idea that a good guy with a gun resorting to vigilantism will make us safer is a fantasy, and not rooted in sound logic or statistics,” Winkler told lawmakers.
“If guns made us safer, the U.S. would be one of the safest in the developed world, not one of the worst.”
NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.
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S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter.
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