We reported back in July how several gun-rights organizations had joined together in a novel approach to get concealed carry lowered or dropped completely.
After the 2022 ruling in New York Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, Garden State lawmakers hiked the cost of a concealed carry permit to $200. Currently, $50 of the fee is paid directly to the Superintendent of the State Police, while the other $150 is paid to the applicant’s municipality.
However, there’s nothing barring jurisdictions from refunding applicants the municipality’s portion of the fee. A negligible amount of these funds goes into the administration of issuing the permits.
Seeing an opportunity, the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA), New Jersey Firearm Owners Syndicate (NJFOS) and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) set out to appeal to municipalities to waive the $150 portion of the fee earmarked for municipalities.
“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,” John Commerford, then executive director of NRA-ILA, said at the time. “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.”
According to a recent report from NRA-ILA, the idea is catching on, and much progress is being made. On November 25, Howell, in Monmouth County, became the twelfth municipality in New Jersey to refund all or substantially all the fees required to obtain a permit to carry.
“With the addition of Howell, in just the towns that have passed this resolution so far, over $125,000 per year in exorbitant and unconstitutional fees have been eliminated, and with nearly 200,000 people living in those municipalities, a growing percentage of the population of the state now lives in places free of these financial barriers to exercising a core constitutional right,” NRA-ILA stated in the report.
The list of towns now includes Englishtown (Monmouth County), Franklin Borough (Sussex County), Dumont (Bergen County), Hardyston (Sussex County), Hopatcong (Sussex County), Vernon (Sussex County), Cresskill (Bergen County), Butler (Morris County), Medford Lakes (Burlington County), Readington (Hunterdon County), Beachwood (Ocean County) and Howell Township (Monmouth County).
Interestingly, the $50 portion of the fee that was to go to the Superintendent of the State Police recently failed to pass legal muster. In September, a three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the $50 portion of the carry permit fee on the basis that the purpose of the fee likely failed “to meet the expense incident to the administration of the [licensing] Act and to the maintenance of public order in the matter licensed.”
Ultimately, no lawful American should be charged a fee of any kind to practice a constitutionally protected right. Thanks to the work of these pro-gun groups and the courts, many New Jersey residents are now able to practice this freedom without having to pay for it.
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