Washington, D.C. — Gun Owners of America (GOA) and the Gun Owners Foundation today teamed up with the Coalition of New Jersey Firearm Owners to challenge the state’s onerous permitting requirements to purchase handguns as well as New Jersey’s arbitrary “one gun a month” law.
Under the purchase permit policy being challenged, New Jerseyans must jump through several hoops, including:
Providing character references
Getting fingerprinted
Paying multiple fees
Enduring two separate waiting periods totaling up to 37 days
And undergoing two separate background checks
In addition to the aforementioned requirements, the Permit to Purchase a Handgun is only valid for 90 days and only valid for one handgun purchase. On top of that, several counties are exceedingly slow to issue permits, further infringing on New Jerseyans’ right to keep and bear arms, sometimes taking as long as six months! And to top it off, New Jersey artificially limits the number of handguns a person can purchase to one handgun per month, arbitrarily limiting law-abiding citizens the access to the handguns of their choice.
Erich Pratt, GOA’s Senior Vice President, issued the following statement:
“New Jersey represents the worst of the worst when it comes to gun control, and as highlighted in our suit, residents of the state don’t have to undergo such an extensive and onerous process in order to exercise any other enumerated constitutional right. We’re very optimistic that this case will eventually be the means by which we finally dismantle New Jersey’s unconstitutional permitting policies and liberate their citizens from their anti-gun tyranny.”
Sam Paredes, on behalf of the board for GOF, added:
“Governor Murphy and AG Platkin have repeatedly and insubordinately bemoaned the Second Amendment and federal court rulings that overturned gun control for years now, and we are excited to finally be confronting these tyrants head on. As we’ve been telling policymakers since the Bruen decision, fall in line, or we will make you.”
GOA spokesmen are available for interviews. Gun Owners of America is a nonprofit grassroots lobbying organization dedicated to protecting the right to keep and bear arms without compromise. GOA represents over two million members and activists. For more information, visit GOA’s Press Center.
