A federal judge has once again struck down a gun law written by the Murphy Administration in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling loosening gun laws last year.
The new law limiting concealed carry of guns in New Jersey was ordered not to be enforced pending legal challenges from gun rights advocates by a federal judge on May 16. The ruling allows New Jerseyans with proper permits to carry handguns at public places such as beaches, parks, libraries, bars and restaurants.
In a 235-page ruling made public May 16, U.S. District Court Judge Renee Marie Bumb wrote that New Jersey had “failed to offer any evidence that law-abiding responsible citizens who carry firearms in public for self-defense are responsible for an increase in gun violence.”
“Devastating” Verdict
New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin described the decision by the Bush appointee as “devastating for public safety.”
“Over and over, the evidence has shown that keeping firearms out of sensitive places will keep our residents safe, and our elected officials passed sensible laws to do exactly that,” said Platkin in a press statement after the decision was released. ”But the court now insists that we are powerless to protect New Jersey residents, and proclaims that the Second Amendment requires allowing guns at parks and beaches, in libraries, at public gatherings, in zoos, and even in bars, among other sensitive places.”
Response to Bruen
Murphy and Democratic legislative leaders crafted a number of new gun safety laws after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down New York’s concealed carry law in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen.
Under the law signed in December 2022, the list of sensitive places where concealed carry were not to be permissible included high-density locations such as entertainment venues, including stadiums, arenas, amusement parks, casinos, racetracks, and publicly owned libraries and museum; youth sporting events and other recreational facilities, such as public parks, beaches, and playground; bars, restaurants where alcohol is served, and any other locations that serve alcohol for on-premises consumption; and airports and public transportation hubs.
Besides high-density locations, the restrictions applied to locations with vulnerable populations such as schools, colleges, and universities; daycare and child-care facilities; hospitals; correctional facilities; and homeless shelters. The last area overhauled was locations with governmental and First Amendment activity, including polling places; courthouses; law enforcement stations and offices; government buildings; and demonstrations, protests, and licensed public gatherings.
Platkin Notes Silver Linings
Platkin said Bumb’s ruling “is bad constitutional law and bad for New Jersey. We will be appealing immediately.
It was not all bad news for supporters of the bill. The judge let stand New Jersey’s new system for obtaining a carry permit, finding the state’s new requirements for firearms training and insurance did not conflict with the Second Amendment, and individual property owners are permitted to prohibit guns from their property as well.
“There is one silver lining: Individuals can still control whether and when to allow firearms on their property,” stated Platkin. “No one may carry a firearm inside someone else’s home, or into a business closed to the public, without the owner’s express permission.”
“And for everyone else – for retail establishments and other businesses open to the public – the owners can still make clear that carrying firearms is not welcome on their premises, just as homeowners can make clear guns are unwelcome on their lawns and driveways. Nothing in today’s opinion changes that important reality.”
This is sheer idiocy. Not until the last decade has the 2nd amendment been interpreted as it is today and guess what? Gun violence and deaths are at an all time high. The law’s constitutionality should not be based upon this kind of “evidence”. This judge suffers rectal cranial inversion.
The road rage shootings are going to go through the roof after this.
I have been happily carrying my pistol concealed in NJ since last august . THe only idiotic thing about this issue is how you think that banning or limiting firearms will reduce crime. Nothing could be further from the truth. Your ass and head have exchanged places.
Nope ! wrong again exactly the opposite. Everywhere people can carry weapons crime rates go DOWN. I have been happily carrying my concealed pistol in NJ since last August.
# of Mass Shootings this year: 225
# of Children/Teens Killed By Guns this year: 663
Killing people randomly with a gun IS the crime, not just in “the course of commitment of a crime.”
No, but putting insurance on them will!
“There is one silver lining: Individuals can still control whether and when to allow firearms on their property,” stated Platkin. “No one may carry a firearm inside someone else’s home, or into a business closed to the public, without the owner’s express permission.” How do they know? One of the reasons why concealment is an issue. In the Texas case, they couldn’t call police until he was on their lawn.
Problem is too many incidents of previously ‘law-abiding’ people having road rage, drugs,slow-developing mental illness or all three and becoming in seconds, a non law abider. I have no doubt an elite few can handle, people that go through permit process now probably a good indicator, I worry about the larger group of people when it gets easier and how responsible they will be.
Bruce is absolutely right. Some people love conflating the effect of lower population densities with the effect of carrying guns, as usual. Loosening gun restrictions in urban and dense suburban areas increases the chance that someone’s first crime will be killing someone.
Lots of ignorant opinions here with no founding in fact or history.
I’m very grateful that despite the ignorance of my fellow citizens, my rights are protected by the Constitution, lots of legal precedent, and judges who honored their oath of office.
If firearms in the hands of the law-abiding in New Jersey were a problem, you’d know about it. Permits to carry have been issued since July of last year. There are now tens of thousands of New Jerseyans discreetly carrying a firearm going about their lives next to you in the grocery story, library, at the park, on the highway… and you don’t even know.
Your fears are irrational. You ought to be more afraid of a government that is constantly trying to suppress and negate your civil liberties than your law-abiding, tax-paying neighbor looking to protect his or her family.
There are daily stories of the New Jersey AG letting criminals off the hook, lowering their sentences, or simply not prosecuting. Those scenarios don’t seem to bother you liberal-minded folks. Why is that? I’d really like to understand.
People have been lawfully concealed carrying in their cars since July, 2022.
If your point of view was even remotely correct, everyone in NJ would know about it.
Yet there hasn’t be ONE story published about a concealed carry permit holder doing this.
Somehow I don’t think that will change your ill-conceived point of view.
It is a fact that States with looser firearms rules have a higher incidence of gun deaths than States with tighter controls. (And the United States leads by far every other nation in gun deaths per capita because we have by far more firearms in circulation than any other nation)