In layman’s terms: FPC is suing New Jersey over its limitation of one handgun per month.
Following their victory in California on a similar issue, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced they are challenging New Jersey’s “one handgun per month” prohibition, taking another huge swing against the weary, aging, and slowly failing trunk of New Jersey’s unconstitutional, anti-civil rights firearms laws that have stood for more than half a century. This is the second major lawsuit filed this year against elements of New Jersey’s archaic, restrictive, and arbitrary permitting schemes. As we reported in June, Coalition of New Jersey Firearms Owners (CNJFO), Gun Owners of America, and Gun Owners Foundation, along with a private plaintiff, filed Benton v. Platkin.
It’s been said that “as goes California, so goes the nation.” In this case, California’s ban was properly declared unconstitutional and enjoined from enforcement following years of litigation, and so it will go with all such bans throughout the United States. We will force New Jersey and every other state to abide by the Second Amendment’s protections without exception,” said FPC President Brandon Combs, in a statement on their website.
FPC filed for summary judgment in Richards v. Bonta in July, challenging California’s 10-day waiting period to take possession of a firearm. They are highly likely to be granted a win.
Fresh off this victory, FPC filed a new suit, known as Struck v. Platkin, which includes News2A friend Daniel Francisco as a plaintiff, on September 26, and directly challenged the following New Jersey statutes which every New Jersey gun owner loathes and knows only too well:
N.J.SA. § 2C:58-3(i) provides, in pertinent part: “Only one handgun shall be purchased or delivered on each permit and no more than one handgun shall be purchased within any 30-day period…”
N.J.A.C. § 13:54-1.9 provides, in pertinent part: “Only one handgun may be purchased or delivered on each permit to purchase.”
New Jersey residents know only too well the pain associated with this rule. First, they must file for a permit for EACH handgun they wish to purchase. In addition to the new and higher costs for each permit ($25), they are valid for only 90 days, after which the resident must apply again (and forfeit the previously spent money). Thousands of residents have been victims of the catch-22 of finally deciding on a firearm they wish to purchase only to have the NICS delay or some other paperwork processing delay push them over the 90-day limit, void their permit, and require them to start the process all over again. For no Constitutionally sound reason.
Laid out simply in just 13 pages, the complaint reads:
The Constitution contains no limitation on the frequency or number of arms that an individual may lawfully purchase or otherwise acquire—period, let alone in a 30-day period. New Jersey’s OGM Ban is not part of the Nation’s historical tradition of firearms regulation. The first OGM-type law in the Nation was not passed until 1975, and New Jersey’s OGM Ban was not passed until 2009…
The complaint also references previous cases where litigation is leaning in favor of no limitations (Nguyen v. Bonta).
The FPC suit is seeking a permanent injunction.
If you’re a New Jersey gun owner, NOW is a really good time to support FPC. We’ve seen often enough, that when a preliminary injunction is issued, it might only apply to the organization’s members and other private plaintiffs named in the suit.
Generally, yearly membership is under $50; it’s tax-deductible, but most importantly, it funds the fight that literally is restoring YOUR freedoms. And it often pays to be a member when there is a limited ruling or injunction in favor of the plaintiffs.
Without Draconian gun laws like NJ’s (or for that matter, California’s), we wouldn’t be known as a Socialist Utopia we’ve come to be recognized as.