Amidst much pomp and circumstance in a Wednesday press conference, New Jersey Attorney General, Matthew Platkin announced lawsuits against two New Jersey gun dealers that sold “highly lethal AR-15” ammunition without checking ID.
Platkin began the press conference by sanctimoniously stating, “In NJ we treat gun violence like the public health crisis that it is.”
The two businesses mentioned are Butch’s Gun World, in Vineland and Point Blank Guns and Ammo, in East Hanover. Platkin alleges that each store:
…sold 1,000 rounds of AR-15 rifle ammunition, in cash, to first time customers, without checking any identification. They didn’t verify in any way that the purchasers were authorized to possess a firearm in the state of New Jersey, as required by state law.
Platkin also stated that the retailers didn’t:
…implement necessary safeguards for the sale of ammunition….or that the purchasers weren’t subject to a domestic violence restraining order…. as required by state law.
The state alleges that the retailers violated the law on four separate occasions in sales to undercover state investigators:
Butch’s Gun World:
- March 2024 – sold a 20-round box of .223 ammo and a handgun magazine
- June 2024 – sold 1,000 rounds of .223 ammo
Point Blank Guns and Ammo:
- March 2024 – sold a handgun magazine
- May 2024 – sold 1,000 rounds of .223 ammo
“The law is clear that the sales discussed in our complaints were improper,” said Statewide Affirmative Firearms Enforcement(SAFE) office director, Ravi Ramanathan. He cited New Jersey Statute 2C:58-35.3.a(2) which states:
(2) A gun industry member shall establish, implement, and enforce reasonable controls regarding its manufacture, sale, distribution, importing, and marketing of gun-related products.
Without any irony at all, Ramanathan observed:
In the majority of states across this country, you don’t need any form of identification or permits to stock up on ammunition, even the type of exquisitely lethal ammunition that you see before you today. New Jersey is the exception to that trend.
As New Jersey residents, we at News2A are not aware of any statute requiring ID or a Firearms Purchaser Identification Card (FPIC) for purchasing long-gun ammunition, except for rifle ammo that can also be used in handguns. The only law we found mandating ID for ammunition purchases is 2C:58-3.3, which applies specifically to handgun ammunition.
Upon reviewing the statute cited by Ramanathan, 2C:58-35.3.a(2), it’s evident that New Jersey is leveraging the relatively new and subjective “public nuisance” law to target these two FFLs. This law was specifically passed to target the firearms industry as a way to circumvent the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). Similar to New Jersey’s “red flag” laws, the “public nuisance” law sets an extremely low threshold for legal action against an industry already facing some of the strictest regulations in the country.
The low bar for offensive use of this law is made plain in the text of 2C:58-35:
3(b) – Whenever it appears to the Attorney General that a gun industry member has engaged in or is engaging in conduct that violates subsection a. of this section, the Attorney General may commence an action…
3(c) – To prevail in an action under this section, the Attorney General shall not be required to demonstrate that the gun industry member acted with the purpose to engage in any public nuisance or otherwise cause harm to the public. The Attorney General shall not be required to demonstrate any special injury to be granted the relief authorized by this section.
Numerous statements issued at the press conference were technically inaccurate and misleading, including a statement that bump stocks, “convert weapons into machine guns.”
Platkin and Ramanathan created new terms and statements that are not standard in the firearms industry, and are unprovable, such as, “AR15 rifle ammunition” which they described as “exquisitely lethal.” It should be noted that .223 ammunition can be fired from a number of different platforms other than AR-15 style firearms, including bolt action rifles and pistols. There is no scientific evidence that it’s any more lethal than any other type of ammunition.
Other bombastic statements included an assertion by Platkin that:
Laws that say everyone is entitled to a machine gun in their back pocket mean more people are going to die.
To see the press conference for yourself, watch the video below, start from 9:34.
“highly lethal AR-15” ammunition? Is there a medium lethal or low lethal level of ammunition? When you use this type of language your obvious bias shows.