What Your Local New Jersey Police Department or State Police Must Show to Deny Your Application for a Firearm Purchaser Identification Card or Permit to Carry in New Jersey

New Jersey is very different when it comes to other states like Pennsylvania when it comes to firearm ownership.  In New Jersey, unlike Pennsylvania, you must obtain proper credentials to even buy a firearm, a separate permit to own a handgun and another permit to carry one; anything else is unlawful possession which carries within it mandatory State Prison following a conviction!   

There are many situations where a person in New Jersey is denied one or all of these credentials by his or her local Police Department Chief.  In these cases, that person can appeal the denial to the Superior Court within the County of that denial.  If an appeal is made, there is a de novo standard. “De Novo” means a court reviews a lower court’s decision without any deference to the previous ruling, essentially treating the case as if it were being heard for the first time.  

What Will a New Jersey Court Consider on an Appeal?

While this is the standard the Court must give appropriate consideration to the Chief of Police’s investigative experience and to any expertise he or she appears to have developed in administering the statute.   On Appeal, the burden is on the Police Chief to show, by a “fair preponderance of the evidence” that there exists good cause for the denial. 

While Court is not bound by any factual determinations that have been made, it must still act with appropriate regard for the local interest factor to the extent they are legitimately reflected in the police chief’s denial.  

Given a local Police Department’s responsibilities for public safety, Courts have found that they have compelling interests in firearm control in their communities.  Their investigative experience and familiarity with investigative techniques, as well as their expertise in evaluating data obtained through investigation furnish a presumptively reliable basis for determining whether an individual’s access to firearms is likely to compromise public safety in that community

The Court will therefore give deference to a local Police Chief’s compelling interest in firearm control in his or her community and his or her presumptively reliable basis for determining whether a person’s access to firearms is likely to compromise public safety in the community.

New Jersey’s Law on Hand Gun Purchase and Firearm Purchaser Identification Cards

N.J.S.A. 2C:58-3c(5) provides that “no handgun purchase permit or firearms purchaser identification card shall be issued to any person where the issuance would not be in the interest of the public health, safety, or welfare.

 The Legislature’s intent in enacting this provision was to keep guns out of the hands of unfit persons and disqualify any unfit individuals who should not in the public interest be entrusted with firearms.  Unlike the other categories of statutory disqualification, the application of this provision does not turn upon an explicit condition but it rests upon a qualitative and fact-sensitive analysis to determine the applicant’s fitness to possess firearms.

Finding that an applicant poses a threat to public health, safety, or welfare does not require proof of any particular category of behavior such as a criminal conviction, evidence of intentional wrongdoing or any specific diagnosis of mental disorder. The Court must conduct a fact-sensitive analysis that carefully considers the applicant’s history of interactions with specific individuals as well as an assessment of the threat he or she may pose to the public.