I’ve seen some talk around gun blogs that the Christie Administration’s recommendations on reforming New Jersey’s gun regulations is a token gesture. I will agree the permit to carry reforms could have gone farther, and I wish they had. But given what New Jersey folks have had to put up with, I think Governor Christie’s new guidelines, if not resisted by underlings and local powers that be, represent fair progress towards making the state not quite as hostile to gun owners.
They are permitted “reasonably necessary” deviations – but those have not been clearly defined, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
The office listed a number of permissible stops, including “collecting and discharging passengers; purchasing fuel, food and beverages, medication, or other needed supplies; using a restroom; contending with an emergency situation; or driving around a traffic jam.”
The “reasonable deviations” clause has always been a favorite in New Jersey to trap unsuspecting gun owners, and it’s good to have clarity. I don’t know to what degree local authorities have to follow what the Attorney General and Governor’s office say, so it remains to be seen whether this will be an improvement in reality, but in theory it’s certainly a step in the right direction.
The really big deal is that the AG’s office is requiring compliance with the letter of the law and making then file compliance reports.
This is in regards to the deadline-to-issue and the limitations on required paperwork.
Deadline to issue a decision, right? From what I understand, you still need to prove a justifiable need or special danger to oneself –above and beyond the normal citizen– for a CCW in NJ. So, you are guaranteed your denial faster.
With some news outlets inaccurate reporting that Christie is “making it easier for people to get guns”, I wonder if this was the intended outcome, i.e., feeding the low-information gun owner.
I’m sure, just as in NYC, the application fees are 100% non-refundable.
The same laws cover the may-issue permit to carry as well as (nominally) shall-issue Permit to Purchase for handguns (one per handgun) and the Firearms Purchaser ID card for purchasing longarms and handgun ammo (lifetime unlimited). By forcing the issuing authorities to comply with the law, it does make it easier for people to purchase firearms. You can apply for any or all of the three on the same form, you just get what you checked the box for. Most people are advised to submit for a Permit to Purchase at the same time as the FPID (which is what I did).
Also, the legally-mandated fees are ridiculously low, having been set in 1968 in the law itself (and not very expensive then) and never adjusted for inflation. Even if they allow the additional “background check” fee (they may or may not, I don’t know how that one was justified), it isn’t terrifically expensive either. The whole NJ background check fee system does not cover the costs to maintain (a fact that rustles jimmies in the Leg every so often, but even the Dems can’t get enough energy together to change it).
They have not been defined so if the changes have any affect it will be to make things worse. Now unsuspecting citizens traveling with firearms will think they are safe when they are still subject to the interpretation of the law by anti-gun zealots in government.
A governor big enough to decide the rules change in slight favor of civil rights is big enough to decide to change them in strong opposition to civil rights……
THE LAW HAS TO CHANGE.
Exactly – the law has to change. That’s the Legislature’s job.
Funny how Shall not be infringed in the Second Amdenment is totally and illegally ignored in NJ.
Makes this whole thing illegal and irrelevant !
We are not Free Men only Subjects of State and Federal Government. I can not sing the national anthem because we are Home of the fee land of the slave !