“In a major announcement this morning, the Supreme Court refused to hear Drake v. Jerejian,” reason.com reports. “At issue was New Jersey’s Handgun Permit Law, which requires applicants to prove they have a ‘justifiable need’ before local officials will issue a handgun carry permit. Unlike those states that maintain a ‘shall issue’ permit regime, where applicants are required to satisfy a clear list of objective criteria, such as . . .
completing a firearms safety course and passing a criminal background check (if you meet the qualifications, the government ‘shall issue’ you a permit), New Jersey grants local officials wide leeway in determining what qualifies as a ‘justifiable need’ in their respective jurisdictions.”
In short, American citizens in New Jersey – and by extension elsewhere – will continue to have their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms denied by pettifogging bureaucrats. The only silver lining: if the Supreme Court had heard the case and upheld the “justifiable need” provision based on some technicality, it might have been decades before it was reversed.