ACTIVISM ALERT
Tomorrow night (Wednesday, June 11), the Mayor and Council of Englishtown will be considering an ordinance that completely eliminates the $150 municipal fee for NJ permits to carry. This is being done on the grounds that the fee is excessive and burdens a core constitutional right. I will be testifying before the council and we need as many folks as possible to show up and cheer on this initiative. After this resolution passes in Englishtown, we intend to present this to municipalities across the state.
If you can attend, please let me know.
When: June 11 at 6 PM (we can meet with the M&C prior to the meeting. The closed executive session begins at 6:30. The public session begins at 7).
Where: Englishtown Borough Hall
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That’s awesome. Does it have a chance?
The mayor of Englishtown is very pro-2A.
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The National Rifle Association – Institute for Legislative Action has joined forces with the New Jersey Firearm Owners Syndicate and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms to convince municipalities throughout New Jersey to refund concealed carry permit applicants $150 of the $200 application fee.
After the Supreme Court held that every American has a right to publicly carry firearms in the NRA’s landmark victory NYSRPA v. Bruen, New Jersey increased the cost of concealed carry permits to $200. While $50 of the fee is paid directly to the Superintendent of the State Police, the other $150 is paid to the applicant’s municipality. The objective of the joint initiative by NRA-ILA, NJFOS, and CCRKBA is to persuade municipalities to pass resolutions authorizing a refund of the $150 paid to them through the application process.
On June 11, Englishtown became the first town in New Jersey to eliminate the $150 fee. On June 24, Franklin Township became the second town. With the support of NRA members, we are optimistic that other towns will soon follow.
“We’re proud to stand with NJFOS and CCRKBA in urging municipalities to significantly reduce the financial burden placed on New Jerseyans seeking to exercise their constitutional rights,” said NRA-ILA Executive Director, John Commerford. “No one should be priced out of their right to self-defense. Eliminating these unjust costs is a common-sense step toward ensuring equal access to a fundamental freedom.”
“Our coalition here reflects how serious and important this issue is,” Joe LoPorto, the director of legal operations of NJFOS said. “Putting core constitutional rights behind prohibitively high fees is a regrettable and discriminatory strategy that states like New Jersey have employed in the wake of Bruen. This strategy harms the poor and the vulnerable. But communities across the State can now fix Trenton’s bad policies and help restore some semblance of equal protection under the law.”
“A lot of revolutionary ideas get drawn on cocktail napkins, but it wasn’t until after we saw how successful this project was in Englishtown that we knew we were onto something big,” Alan Gottlieb, the chairman of CCRKBA said. “Partnering with NRA-ILA and NJFOS is a no-brainer. We’re working to get these unconstitutional fees refunded back to as many applicants as possible. These fees are exorbitant and fly in the face of Bruen.”
Please stay tuned to www.nraila.org for future updates on NRA-ILA’s ongoing efforts to defend your constitutional rights, and please visit www.nraila.org/litigation to keep up to date on NRA-ILA’s ongoing litigation efforts.
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I missed this from a couple weeks back:
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I contacted Denville Township 5 days ago and received a response from the Mayor that they are in talks with the Chief of PD and the township attorney who are reviewing the NJFOS resolution. I will keep a running update as this progresses.
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I received a response.
I asked the Township Attorney to review the proposed resolution to determine if we can legally waive all fee in connection with at CCW permit. Our Attorney has advised that the state of New Jersey has a law that says the CCW permit fee shall accompany any application for a CCW permit, and that the fee shall be retained by the municipality. `
Therefore we cannot legally consider this resolution until NJ legislature changes the law. If we adopt the resolution and started refunding or not collecting these fees, we run the risk that the State Attorney General’s office may file suit against those towns who are not collecting the mandatory fees.
We will be monitoring the legislation to see if the law changes whereby we can revisit this again to see what options the Council may have.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention and for sharing your concerns.
I’m not a lawyer but I can’t find anywhere in the statute where it says the township can’t refund their portion of the fee. I think the township needs an attorney who reads the law.
At the next meeting ask to see an overview of the town’s finances and ask them to point out the line item where they are retaining the PCH fees to make sure they never spend them on anything. If they don’t have a separate line for this, thewy are not retaining the fees according to this lawyer.
The law says:
In the case of an application made to the chief police officer of a municipality, $150 of the fee shall be retained by the municipality and the remaining $50 shall be forwarded to the superintendent. The fee amount retained by the municipality shall be used to defray the costs of investigation, administration, and processing of the permit to carry handgun applications. Application fees made to the superintendent shall be deposited into the Victims of Crime Compensation Office account.
It clearly means that of the $200, $50 is forwarded to NJSP and the remaining $150 is retained by the town. i.e. not forwarded to NJSP. After the cost of the investigation (which is mostly covered by the $23 background check fee), what the town spends it on is up to them. Perhaps it could be used as a self defense incentive payment to encourage people to get their carry permits.
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We need to get a stong conservitive town to institute an REGISTERED VOTER PERMIT TO VOTE LICENSE with a similar payment scheme, Marxist platkin will immediately sue the town to stop it calling it unconstitutional.
No other enumerated constitutional right has a fee attached to it in order to exercise.
William Kirk of Washington [State] Gun Law
Pretty positive grass roots action, and towns like Englishtown finding ways to protect our natural rights against the state
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