Technically, the law for New Jersey says that the police have 30 days to issue an FID or Pistol Purchase Permit unless they have good cause to deny it. In theory, they are supposed to be shall issue. In practice, they are no such thing, because the courts refuse to enforce the law. Only in New Jersey would the courts rule that 30 days doesn’t mean 30 days. It can take more than a year to get an FID card in New Jersey in some jurisdictions.
5 thoughts on “Explaining the FID Delays in New Jersey”
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It was over 25 years ago when my dad gave up trying to get his firearms ID card in New Jersey. The police told him there was a problem with processing his fingerprint card two or three times, I think. It was something technical like that. He never thought to sue over it, and it doesn’t really matter now since he lives in Florida, which is a state that actually respects our gun rights, unlike New Jersey.
I had a FID, back when I was an NJ inmate. They jerked my chain for 10, almost 11 months, making a permanent enemy in the process, offering every excuse in the books along the way.
While the NJ statutes provide a course of appeal for *denied* FIDS, this avenue is not open to people whose FID has merely not been granted. (Yes, there is a difference!)
The end result is that the agents of the state of NJ can block a residents access to guns simply by taking no action on FID applications on the thinnest of pretexts.
Eventually, if you’re persistent, some 6-12 months later you’ll pass some threshold of outrage, and a lawyer might take your case and write a letter demanding an investigation or threatening suit. Sometimes, that is enough, other times, it goes all the way to court, many months later.
Unfortunately, there is no system-wide remedy. The best you can do is demand your rights for yourself, and the chief will grudgingly hand over a permit to you, but this does nothing for anyone else in the same boat.
Which is all well and good, until you realize that you might want another handgun, and start the process all over again, this time with chief who has probably shifted from covert hostility to overt hostility.
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This really is one symptom of an overall deeper disease in NJ. Judicial activism runs rampant. NJ’s revised constitution (1947ish, IIRC) created an independent judiciary of political life time appointees. Many examples can be pointed to where this judiciary wildly exceeds their authority. This shows up in gunlaw, (where they judicially created an exception for LEO possession of personal AWs not otherwise found in the text of the statutes), and in their apparent statewide collusion to de-facto eliminate carry permits. (Historically, NJ used to issue a lot more permits back in the 70’s and 80’s) , but it also shows up in other realms as well. Allowing the evil Mummy Lautenberg to take disgraced Torricelli’s spot on the ballot well after the deadline is a particularly flagrant example.
As far as I can tell, NJ is lost to Liberty for the period of time that includes our lifespan. As far as I’m concerned, it’s another country. You might as well blow the bridges, mine the river, and setup passport checkpoints at the border.
“Only in New Jersey would the courts rule that 30 days doesn’t mean 30 days. It can take more than a year to get an FID card in New Jersey in some jurisdictions.”
Oh if only that were true. In 2007 the Georgia Appeals court in Moore v. Cranford ruled that 60 days does not mean 60 days. In that case it merely meant the issuer could wait as long as it took for the process to complete. Though here the times were more like 4-6 months, sometimes much longer.
http://www.georgiapacking.org/caselaw/moorevcranford.htm
I should add, that case in GA was for a license to carry.
I mailed in my application for a Florida Non-Res concealed weapons permt the same day I applied for a “Permit to purchase a handgun” in NJ. Guess what came back approved first… There is a mindset against guns and gun owners at the state level in NJ. That’s one reason I really want to leave.