West Milford, N.J., recently became the 18th city in the state to vote to refund all or part of the fees required to obtain a carry permit in the Garden State.
The move was in response to a plan formulated by the National Rifle Association (NRA), the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) and the New Jersey Firearm Owners Syndicate (NJFOS) to persuade municipalities in the state to voluntarily drop the excessively high fees imposed by the state for concealed-carry permits.
A New Jersey statute requires permit holders to renew their permits every two years for $200, of which $150 goes directly to the issuing municipality and the other $50 to the state. The state adopted this stiff fee in response to the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in the Bruen case, and it has become known as the “carry killer” law.
A three-judge panel at the state’s Third Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the state’s $50 portion of the permit fee last September. Even before that, some towns across the state started rejecting their share of the fees, returning the money to permit holders.
West Milford becoming the 18th municipality to refund permit fees is a major victory for New Jersey gun owners, the NRA and the CCRKBA.
“Seeing this historic movement continue in my home state of New Jersey, an anti-liberty viper pit, shows that progress can be made anywhere,” CCRKBA Director John Petrolino said in a news release on the latest city’s decision. “The Committee having this opportunity to work alongside great organizations like the NRA-ILA and NJFOS in this shared initiative only further galvanizes these relationships for the better good of the Second Amendment at large. I certainly look forward to seeing these groups—and others—join us in future projects as we usher in a new era of firearms advocacy.”
CCRKBA Executive Director Andrew Gottlieb said his organization sis delighted with the progress so far on adding states to the list.
“Since starting the project last year, we’ve been able to bring municipalities in eight New Jersey counties on board, and we’re working on expanding the program even more,” Gottlieb said. “What’s really significant is that West Milford was the first community in New Jersey to declare itself a ‘Second Amendment sanctuary’ back in December 2019, and this week’s action underscores that decision.”
The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) also expressed pleasure at the addition of West Milford to the list.
“With the addition of West Milford, in just the towns that have passed this resolution so far, over half a million dollars in exorbitant and unconstitutional fees paid by applicants across those towns since the law was changed have been eliminated, and with hundreds of thousands of people living in those municipalities, a growing percentage of the population of the state now lives in places free of these financial barriers to exercising a core constitutional right,” NRA-ILA wrote in a news item on the topic.
The list of towns now includes Beachwood, Plumsted, South Toms River and Toms River in Ocean County; Butler and Riverdale in Morris County; Cresskill and Dumont in Bergen County; Englishtown, Howell and Wall Township in Monmouth County; Franklin Boro, Hardyston, Hopatcong and Vernon in Sussex County; Medford Lakes in Burlington County; Readington in Hunterdon County; and West Milford in Passaic County.
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