Let’s pause here to consider that bursting pipeline of [concealed carry permit] applicants, and allow the math to guide our next steps. Imagine the consequences of another 15,000 guns in each New Jersey county. Imagine thousands more in high-crime cities like Paterson, Newark and Trenton.
That’s why this reform package may be most important gun safety measure drafted in our lifetimes, and the authors have done a stellar job threading the needle on protecting citizens while upholding the new right to carry a concealed gun. They’ve done this by proposing measures to ensure that gun owners are responsible, lawful, and properly trained, while putting reasonable limits on where they can carry their weapon.
But they also know that virtually every provision in this comprehensive bill – which passed two Assembly committees this week, both by party-line vote – is going to be challenged in court.
The NRA and other guns rights organizations will undoubtedly challenge the list of 25 “sensitive places” where firearms cannot be taken under this bill, a common-sense provision that turns schools, government buildings, bars, stadiums, casinos, energy plants, day care centers, and other public places into gun-free zones.
They will also object to the very rational standards for background checks, such as the requirement of four non-family character references that would have to be interviewed by law enforcement before permits are issued. Applicants who have been convicted of certain crimes – including the violation of a restraining order – would be disqualified from obtaining a carry permit.
And they will also challenge the new standards for licensing, which includes an increased fee of $200; and the requirement of liability insurance, which they will call onerous, even though it has withstood challenges in other states. …
The ideologues who have hijacked the Supreme Court want to turn our state into the wild west, so for as long as it takes, New Jersey’s lawmakers must find a way to limit the carnage and protect their people. This is a laudable start.
— Newark Star-Ledger Editorial Board in NJ Is Now a Concealed Carry State. Let’s Adjust Intelligently
I believe a reasonable ‘fee’ should be no more than the fee for a driver’s license.
Oh, and the time before a renewal should be the same as a driver’s license, not that every two years in person like California does…
A reasonable fee would be no fee and no license or permit to carry or possess or purchase. There is no legality to a poll tax on the 2nd Amendment.
“A reasonable fee would be no fee and no license or permit to carry or possess or purchase.”
Oh, you’re one of *those*.
The reality is this – Covering the cost of issuing the permit has already been found to be constitutional, like it or not. So suck on it.
What NJ wants to do is make it $200 higher, that’s bullshit. They know the cost of issuing DL’s, so make the cost the same as that. That’s a perfectly reasonable compromise.
We can destroy the license to purchase as unconstitutional, since there was no late-1700s equivalent.
The ‘Bruen’ decision leaves wide-assed-open a whole lot of possibilities. They claim they want gun safety, we need to push for high schools to offer safe gun handling, the same way they offer driver’s ed. Bring back NCAA small-bore rifle teams to schools, as well…
I disagree. A state generating it’s own requirements on a constitutional right and then charging a fee for it is self serving. Wish we all could put requirements on other people and get paid for it. Even if they require a permit that should be at no cost similar to a voter registration.
He’s right. Although it’s tempting to give into the “reasonable” infringements for expediency, they are still infringements. Not a lot of room for them in “Shall not”.
Driving is not a constitutionally protected right. The right to keep and bear arms is.
We pay taxes. Taxes fund government. Government has the responsibility to preserve and protect our rights.
There should be NO fees to exercise constitutionally protected rights. We already paid for government – we should not have to pay twice.
“There is no legality to a poll tax on the 2nd Amendment.”
There is a specific Constitutional Amendment to prevent voting taxes (poll taxes). There is no such Amendment to prevent gun taxes and the fact that one was NEEDED to prevent poll taxes means that it is, in some way, legal to create taxes connected to rights.
Whether you agree with that or not is largely irrelevant.
Did you complete 8th grade English? Read 27 words and explain where the authority to have any law whatsoever addressing any kind of arms, including taxing them, when the basis for consideration is “shall not be infringed”. We have just been shown that SCOTUS rulings are not universally correct, yet on this subject, where the subject guarantee is clear as day and “common sense” SCOTUS rulings are clearly wrong, we still have subjects trying to convince actual citizens that SCOTUS rulings are sacrosanct, live forever. Silliness. If everyone agrees, pass an Amendment! But simply ignoring a very clear Amendment from the Bill of RIGHTS, for crissake, should be a hanging offense, not excepting the SCOTUS itself.
@Rand
For newly registered voters, l like universal background checks. After that, a fee-based permit should be REQUIRED to NOT own a firearm…
Pretty sure such a requirement would be constitutional.
I think state IDs including DLs should be issued without charge. So in that sense…. absolutely, the “fee” should be the same.
If a state ID or DL was free, you’d get rid of that racist argument Democrats make that black people can’t afford an ID and shouldn’t be required to vote.
In California, IDs are free, DLs cost money. I think that that is fair.
Florida the same, IDs are no charge, Dls, a modest fee…
Criminals ignore the laws,that’s all ! Why place onerous requirements on LEGAL gun owners while criminals laugh at the abiding? Easy answer: the government cannot control the bad people so they control the good. These unconstitutional laws never address the obvious that is bad people BREAK THE LAW.
“want to turn our state into the wild west,” is something a person who has no actual concept of history would say. Maybe they watched too many old western movies and TV shows?
Nonetheless, perhaps this same person doesn’t watch many mob movies…or the Sopranos? There’s already a proliferation of guns in the hands of criminals…who generally don’t follow licensing procedures nor listen to assembly-persons opinions on whether a legally, licensed carrier has the requisite insurance, etc.
Organized crime always enacts strict gun control.
They worship the Mob in NJ.
Cue Sinatra.
Lot of words to say we follow NY now stop seeking basic liberties slave.
New Jersey: NYC’s Other Suburb.
Harsh not exactly untrue near NYC but the rest of NJ isn’t that bad.
A good chunk of NJ is a suburb of Philly, and the two spheres in NJ, ( Philly and NYC ), hate each others’ guts.
As well they should!
New Jersey: NYC’s garbage/body dump. FIFY
Insane new jersey Gun Control caters to murderers, rapists, thieves, bullies, child molesters, perverts and the like. Typical democRat Nest.
I instantly thought of a newspaper printing the tweaked phrase “the authors have done a stellar job threading the needle on protecting citizens while upholding the new right to express themselves on the web”
What “new right” is that they speak of, do tell?
“Star-Ledger: New Jersey’s New Limits on Concealed Carry are Fair, Balanced, and Constitutional”
1. Fair? Nope. Subjecting one to onerous requirements and limits and restrictions subject to arbitrary ‘permission’ by a government entity (e.g city, county, state, federal) for the exercise of a constitutional right is not ‘fair’. Would the Star-Ledger think it was ‘fair’ for their first amendment rights to be subjected to the same types of requirements and limits and restrictions that is placed on the exercise of the second amendment?
2. Balanced? Nope. It is never ‘balanced’ if the government entity can decide if you can or can not exercise a constitutional right.
3. Constitutional? Nope. Not under the second amendment, not under the SCOTUS Bruen decision, and not in the context and spirit and intent of the founding fathers – in short, not Constitutional.
The folks at the Star-Ledger need to stop taking so many drugs. No one wants to turn your state into the wild west, that’s an old and false argument. Their article is a combination of ignorance, deception, and false information.
If I read only my local newspaper to become informed, I would think Biden was smart, sharp, tough and doing a great job. The newspaper media, from the NYT to dinky local papers, is 98% corrupt, lying and bigoted.
These days, just about every word dished out by the MSM is a lie including “and” and “the”.
Yep, 100% correct.
Lets ask this, would MLK have met the standards to get a CC license in NJ?
I am wagering no. He didn’t when the racist, corrupt Democrats in the South were in charge there either.
Same old B S arguments. Nothing new.
The liberal Democrat left will create the very problems they are all so fearful of. We are watching THAT process play out all over this country. It’s more that many people cannot recognize it. I find it interesting that so many people are so scared of responsible people having guns but at the same time seem to be perfectly ok with criminals having guns. It isn’t just elected leaders either. A huge portion of the general population seem to be this way while never making the connection to crime levels.
“Imagine the consequences of another 15,000 guns in each New Jersey county. Imagine thousands more in high-crime cities like Paterson, Newark and Trenton.”
Conflating fiction with fact to set a deceptive tone for the rest of their article.
Fact: These are carry permitted people, background checked and everything. The number of permit carry holders in an area has no bearing on if a city is high-crime. You start of your article implying that concealed carry permit holders cause high-crime cities and that is completely false. I know what you are referring to, a deceptive study that created a ‘composite’ state by combining stats from numerous states to give the impression that the more concealed carry permits the higher the crime rate in one state. Not only was your study debunked by numerous independent researchers, even debunked by some people in the anti-gun community, it was based upon false information data sets that were ‘created’ rather than actual data for a state.
Fact: “another 15,000 guns” in the hands of law abiding people means another 15,000 people with the best means for and offering the best chance of survival in self defense against the very criminal elements that are running rampant.
.40,
Well done!
Would be interested to know more about this ‘composite’ state database or the debunked research if possible.
GUN CONTROL IS ANTI-CIVIL RIGHTS > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUQFELOoSI0
Star Ledger, like all leftist media: “We will do the thinking for you. No need to spend time and energy digging through facts and sorting through opinions. We have it covered. Now, go back to sleep.”
Imagine citizens being able to protect themselves. FIFY
Hey, New Jersey!!! Hey, New York!!
Don’t like the Constitution? Secede! But denying civil rights is not going to end well for you.
Bye-Bye!!
Imagine new guns in high crime areas. Well that’ll clearly make things worse. Guns cause crime. Why, I made the mistake of picking up a Glock just the other day, BAM. Instant rapist. Even the cat won’t come near me. I’m usually a very loving and sweet man, but when one of those brain controlling devil firearms gets on me, it’s game over man. They’re sentient, don’t ya know.
It’s the miasma of evil that infects and corrupts anyone in the vicinity. The guns have bad ju-ju.
I can’t imagine the amount of brain rot it would take to believe that crime in Newark, NJ is caused by legal CCW owners. These people are profoundly ignorant or dishonest propagandists. Neither is a good look.
“These people are profoundly ignorant or dishonest propagandists.”
They are both.
They don’t just hide the truth. They also routinely blame the problems they cause on their political rivals. They know their audience (mostly) isn’t interested in the truth. They’re only interested in sticking it to the Mega MAGA terrorists. Tribalism works in their favor, which is why they promote it. It’s sad and frustrating to watch.
Their audience demands to be lied to.
About the same amount of brain rot as to believe that prohibiting CCW in a particular location has the power to truly make it a gun-free zone.
$200 bucks? for a Constitutional recognized pre-existing Right!? NJ is the same wankers that prohibit hollow points, which are safer. Also the ones who were grabbing air travelers who had to recheck their bags at one point if a weapon was included.
I am thankful for where I live, everyday.
Ever notice how these anti-gun screeds have no comment section?
It’s fair and reasonable to disarm the poor, obviously.
Just common sense!
“NJ is the same wankers that prohibit hollow points, which are safer.”
We should be able to nuke that in court, as well…
Four non-family character references, all whom have to be interviewed? Plus liability insurance? Sure sounds fair and balanced to me:(
They’re copying NY laws as much as they can- with the obvious goal of making it impossible to get such a license.
Just moved? Don’t know anyone around you yet? Guess you can’t exercise a right for the next 3 years!
And then they’ll scream “extremist judges!” when it’s struck down, again.
I see the word “common sense” I know it’s a gun grabber press release.
The Star Ledger turned into a steaming pile of BS back in the late ’70s/early ’80s, I remember when my dad cancelled the daily home delivery. It had become hyper-editorialized.
Who the F wants a newspaper that omits details, lies, tells you how to ‘feel’ about a story, and sometimes include insults if you disagree with the ‘groupthink’.
It’s no wonder though, their offices are based in Newark. The stomping grounds where mental midget ‘Spartacus/Superhero’ Cory Booker larps around.
The Asbury Park Press resisted editorializing everything back then, but they eventually went that same route the Star Ledger did.
The APP broke numerous scandals in the state of NJ back in the ’80s. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Sr Editor and some staff wound up with ventilated craniums, then dropped in a shallow graves somewhere in the Pine Barrons.
Pine Barrens, not Barrons… 🙂
👍
Saw that autocorrect changed that, didn’t bother correcting it.
Seems autocorrect dislikes ‘barrens’.
Really? Pray tell, what is a “barron”? I know something of “barons”, but nothing of “barrons”.
When is New Jersey going to make “journalists” get a journalism license so that journalists can exercise their 1st Amendment rights?
The day that happens …. well, why be absurd? NJ citizens need to force their legislators to deal w/the fact that the 2nd Amendment doesn’t protect a 2nd-right.
We are Stardust, we are golden
Billion year old carbon
And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the New Jersey
They never tire of the “wild west” shtick even though that has never happened, ever, in any shall issue or constitutional carry state.
It wasn’t even the ‘wild west’ in their context even back in the days of the ‘wild west’.
The ‘wild west’ argument is completely fabricated to exploit a general public fiction based perception about the early days of the west.
Most folks back then had all the wild they could handle, and were not looking for more.
“Imagine the consequences of another 15,000 guns in each New Jersey”
This terd is jonesing for the day when mob muscle could collect debts with just a roll of nickles.
The consequences of 15,000 guns in the hands of law abiding citizens is gross reduction in crime! Florida has over 3,000,000 million yes million CCP persons actively preventing crime in Florida.
First of all any gun law is an infringement on the second amendment!
If New Jersey is afraid of crime and criminals why don’t they use the proven method of reducing crime? Do what other successful states have done…issue concealed carry permits with no or very little restrictions. Florida is a good example. Commit a crime or try to commit a crime in Florida will most likely get you shot by a senior citizen. I know I am one who carries. We have very few restrictions on concealed carry. Let’s face it if you don’t know who has a gun but you know a lot of people carry in your state only the stupid risk a criminal act. Now you are going to say criminals don’t care but statistic prove otherwise.
A famous crime in Florida was the guy who was beating a highway patrol officer to death on the side of the road. A passerby saw the cat and stopped and approached the officer and his attacker. The officer said “shoot him”, that’s what the passerby did and killed the attacker. Good luck committing forcible felonies in Florida. We ordinarily folks don’t appreciated it. New Jersey has always had unreasonable gun laws infringing on the Second Amendment. Same as Chicago, they won’t change because having you scare of criminal makes for good fodder during election campaigns. “Hey elect me I’ll be tough on crime.” Yeah right!
The Newark Star Ledger Editors who wrote this article are thoroughly brainwashed by liberalism and communism. The 25 sensitive places, all private property and while driving a vehicle are proposed gun free zones which is basically EVERYWHERE, there is no place left a CCW permit holder can carry. These prohibited places makes the CCW permit useless. The Supreme Court has already ruled that only FOUR places can be restricted. You can’t place such expansive restrictions on the 2nd Amendment, just like you cannot for speech or voting, assembly, etc. Also, you can’t charge a fee to exercise a constitutional right, such as speech or voting. References and police interviews are subjective methods to produce an opinion of the applicant, which has been ruled illegal. No more opinions, no more “May” issue schemes to exercise a right. And anti-gunners’ “Wild West” argument has never come true anywhere. 25 States are now constitutional carry and require no CCW permit to carry with few restrictions. 43 States are pro-CCW. The only areas with high gun crimes are blue Democrat run cities with strong gun control like in Chicago, DC, Baltimore, Detroit, Newark and NYC. All of these proposed NJ restrictions of the 2nd Amendment will be tossed out by the courts, GUARANTEED.
This entire article is so false, especially the assumption that additional law abiding citizens carrying guns would increase crime. Those who are issued a CCW permit are the most law abiding citizens in NJ. Currently, in order to obtain a CCW permit, the applicant has to undergo a thorough background check. You can’t have any serious criminal history and no domestic violence of any kind. You have to be fingerprinted, psychological background completed, photographed and supply 3 non family references. And you have to complete at least two training courses which involves live fire. Nobody (or very few) who can pass these steps is going to use their gun illegally. People with CCW permits are statistically more law abiding than police officers (Fact).