Why a Challenge to New Jersey Permit Fees Is So Important

New Jersey isn’t just anti-gun. They’re downright hostile toward gun ownership. As I’ve mentioned before, I once joked to our own John Petrolino that he should move from the Garden State to a freer state, such as Illinois or Massachusetts. The fact that it might have been a joke but it wasn’t necessarily wrong, is troubling.

And they’ve just gotten worse since I made that quip.

Now, they charge $200 for a permit to carry, which is insane.

Sure, Englishtown is giving people most of the fees back, which is great news. I mentioned in that piece that I hoped it would spark an avalanche, and while I meant that other towns would follow suit, it looks like we’re getting something else.

A group of pro-2A groups is suing the state over its permitting fees, as Cam noted on Monday.

In that piece, Cam shared this bit:

“A lot of revolutionary ideas get drawn on cocktail napkins, but it wasn’t until after we saw how successful this project was in Englishtown that we knew we were onto something big,” Alan Gottlieb, the chairman of CCRKBA said. “Partnering with NRA-ILA and NJFOS is a no-brainer. We’re working to get these unconstitutional fees refunded back to as many applicants as possible. These fees are exorbitant and fly in the face of Bruen.”

“We’re proud to stand with NJFOS and CCRKBA in urging municipalities to significantly reduce the financial burden placed on New Jerseyans seeking to exercise their constitutional rights,” said NRA-ILA Executive Director, John Commerford. “No one should be priced out of their right to self-defense. Eliminating these unjust costs is a common-sense step toward ensuring equal access to a fundamental freedom.”

This is great, and the truth of the matter is that the challenge needs to happen.

It’s not difficult to make an argument for reasonable fees being required for concealed carry permits. There’s a cost to everything involved, and local governments that are tasked with handling things shouldn’t have to bear the complete and total burden of an action the state has mandated they carry out. Seems reasonable enough.

Sure, they could just institute constitutional carry, and no one would have to bear the burden, but that’s a topic for another day.

If you’re going to require permits, reasonable fees are something that people might grumble over a bit, but most people don’t think much about.

What New Jersey is doing, though, goes beyond reasonable fees. This is nothing more than a way to deter people from getting a carry permit. It’s about making the cost excessive enough that most people won’t even bother. They’ll figure they’ll do it some other time when money is a little better and just not follow through with it.

That’s the entire point.

This lawsuit needs to happen because New Jersey has absolutely no respect for the right to bear arms. Bearing arms means having them on one’s person, for crying out loud, and they’re actively trying to keep law-abiding citizens from doing so.

What’s more, there’s no way lawmakers haven’t been told that most so-called gun crimes are carried out by people who don’t have licenses. Upping the permitting fees does nothing to reduce crime.

On every level, it’s wrong, and I’m glad to see it happen.