Federal Court Enjoins Restrictive New Jersey Gun Law

In December 2022, New Jersey passed A4769, which effectively declares all public areas to be off limits to firearms, increases permit fees, uses social media posts as grounds to deny permits, and requires gun owners to acquire liability insurance that does not appear to exist in the state. The NRA-ILA, together with the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs then filed a lawsuit in Federal Court, Siegel v. Platkin, challenging A4769.

The legal challenge to this insane, New Jersey statute is going well. In January, the Federal District Court for New Jersey issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the state from enforcing a lot of those restrictions. And this week, in a 230-page opinion, the Court preliminary enjoined the state from enforcing much of A4769 until the full legal proceedings are resolved.

The Court examined the new permitting requirements and enjoined the state from requiring individuals to obtain a $300,000 liability policy before they could get a carry license. It also prohibited the state from conducting in-person interviews with the applicant’s character references. The Court also limited the scope of A4769’s provision that allows the state to deny the applicant if it finds that he or she “to be lacking the essential character of temperament necessary to be entrusted with a firearm”. That now means that there is objective evidence that the individual poses a threat, and permitting agents are limited to looking at the applicant’s public statements for statements suggesting that they pose a threat to themselves of the general public.

The Court was even harder on the new so-called sensitive places that were banned under A4769. It enjoined the state from enforcing the bans on the following locations:

— Virtually all private property where the public is generally admitted — i.e., all stores and restaurants;
— Public gatherings and permitted events;
— Parks, beaches, recreational facilities, zoos, and state parks;
— Libraries and museums;
— Places that serve alcohol for on-premise consumption;
— Entertainment facilities and Casinos;
— Airport parking lots and curbside drop-off and pickup;
— Medical offices and ambulatory care facilities;
— Public filming/motion picture locations; and
— Inside vehicles.

The court concluded that A4769 “went too far, becoming the kind of law that Founding Father Thomas Jefferson would have warned against since it ‘disarm[s] only those who are not inclined or determined to commit crimes [and] worsen[s] the plight of the assaulted, but improve[s] those of the assailants.’”