Requests for gun carry permits hit record highs in January

The number of New Jersey residents seeking permits to carry handguns has hit record levels two and a half years after a U.S. Supreme Court decision limited the state’s ability to deny such applications.

Authorities processed 4,282 applications for carry permits in January, the highest number on record, just months after exceeding 3,000 approved applications for the first time in October, according to data maintained by the state attorney general.

In the two years before the Supreme Court ruling, the highest number of these applications in a given month was 102.

Gun rights advocates say as we move farther from the decision, case known as Bruen, they expect more New Jerseyans will seek to carry firearms as “the issue matures” and as legal challenges filed in the wake of the high court’s ruling are settled.

“A lot of people initially were reluctant to apply until the dust settled on the post-Bruen squabble that was going on,” said Scott Bach, executive director of the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs.

Bruen struck down as unconstitutional a New York law that required applicants for concealed carry permits to show their need to carry a handgun. The ruling forced New Jersey lawmakers to rewrite carry laws here to eliminate a requirement that residents show a justifiable need to carry a handgun beyond their home or business, spawning a wave of litigation targeting the state’s other gun restrictions.

New Jersey authorities received 61,751 applications for permits to carry a firearm between the Bruen ruling in June 2022 and last month (some of the increase may be attributable to permit renewal applications, though it’s unclear how much). In the two and a half years before the ruling, the total number of applications was around 1,500.

Under New Jersey’s post-Bruen concealed carry law, carry permits must be renewed two years after they are issued. Data maintained by the state attorney general reports 1,465 renewal applications, though that number accounts for a fraction of the applications that would have expired in recent months.

The court’s landmark ruling narrowed the list of reasons authorities can use to deny carry permits, though New Jersey law still allows authorities to withhold permits because of an applicant’s prior domestic violence convictions, drug or alcohol addiction, mental disorder, and some other reasons.

Virtually all of the permit applications New Jersey police have received since Bruen have been approved, with only 325 applications denied.

The rates at which residents sought carry permits varied wildly between New Jersey counties, though they were typically more numerous in more Republican areas of the state and less so in Democratic ones.

For example, 1,988 Sussex County residents have obtained carry permits since Bruen — about 13.8 for every 1,000 residents there. Meanwhile, urban and heavily Democratic Hudson County saw 1,723 residents receive permits to carry, or about 2.4 permits for every 1,000 residents.

Statewide, there were roughly 6.1 carry permits for every 1,000 residents.

Despite recent spikes in the number of carry permit applications, the number of those permits sought and issued remains far below predictions made by top law enforcement officials in the aftermath of Bruen.

Then, State Police Superintendent Col. Pat Callahan predicted the state would see 200,000 applications for permits to carry, more than three times as many as have been processed to date.

Bach predicted the number of permit seekers would continue to rise as residents grow more used to the new regulatory regime and as lingering legal issues surrounding New Jersey’s post-Bruen gun laws wind their way through the courts.

“As the law becomes clearer and clearer and as New Jersey catches up with the rest of the country, which has had right-to-carry for decades where the right hasn’t been suppressed and repressed, as it becomes more natural and normal for people to take responsibility for their own safety in an emergency, you’re going to see more and more people doing it,” he said.

Shortly after Bruen, New Jersey lawmakers passed and Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation that bars residents from carrying guns in certain areas, including parks, bars, and hospitals, among others.

A federal judge paused enforcement of that law in 2023, but an appeals court allowed enforcement to continue that June, pending a final outcome. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals is still weighing that case, which was filed by gun owners and firearms groups.

“There are a lot of gun owners that have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for a resolution before they apply,” said Bach.

His group estimates there are roughly 1 million gun owners in New Jersey.

Democratic officials predicted that expanded access to firearms and carry permits would increase gun crime in the state — Murphy called Bruen’s expansion of access to carry permits a “recipe for tragedy” shortly after the Supreme Court issued the ruling — but gun crime has fallen since then.

Murphy in January announced the number of New Jersey shooting victims in 2024 fell to the lowest level recorded since the state began tallying those statistics in 2009, declining for the second consecutive year to 778 victims, including 152 fatalities.

Administration and law enforcement officials credited expanded violence intervention efforts and the state’s gun violence task force — an information-sharing hub for agencies across the state’s 21 counties — for the decreases.

“These measures, in addition to the resources and various tools the Legislature and governor have provided have assisted in reducing gun crime over the last year,” said Michael Symons, a spokesperson for Attorney General Matt Platkin.

The Attorney General’s Office indicated it is still concerned about a possible increase in gun crime due to the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling.

“The ultimate impact of the Supreme Court’s decision in Bruen is not yet known since law enforcement data shows the average amount of time between acquisition of a gun and committing a crime with that gun is several years,” Symons said. “And, of course, when talking about gun safety, it is not only about gun crime, but also gun accidents and misuse, which the Attorney General’s Office is working hard to protect against.”