Handgun Permit-To-Carry Applications (Part 2)

The Administrative Directive continued: Judges must strive to act on those pending applications within 60 days and should not exceed that 60-day timeframe without good cause. Any applications pending with law enforcement are to be decided by the appropriate chief police officer or superintendent. Effective today, any permit to carry application presented to the court will be returned to the law enforcement entity from which it was received.

The Superior Court will continue to hear appeals from law enforcement denials of applications for firearms purchaser identification cards, permits to purchase a handgun, and permits to carry a handgun. The new law provides that no formal pleading or filing fee is required for these appeals. N.J.S.A. 2C:58-3(d)(f); N.J.S.A. 2C:58-4(e); N.J.S.A. 2C:39- 6(l)(5).

Any applicant aggrieved by the denial of a permit by law enforcement who wishes to file an appeal with the court is encouraged to file electronically through the Judiciary Electronic Document Submission (JEDS) System. The aggrieved applicant must also serve copies of the request for a hearing on the New Jersey State Police Superintendent, the county prosecutor, and the chief police officer of the municipality where the applicant resides, if the applicant is a New Jersey resident.

Regarding the Statewide System for Tracking Denials of Gun Permit and Carry Permit Appeals In 2019, a universal numbering protocol for docketing and tracking appeals was implemented to maintain statewide consistency. This manual numbering convention will continue until an electronic filing and tracking system is completed. Appeals from the law enforcement denial to issue firearms purchaser identification cards, permits to purchase a handgun, and permits to carry a handgun should use a similar numbering system. For example, the first gun permit appeal for Camden County in 2023 should be as follows: GPA – CAM – 001 – 23 (Gun Permit Appeal – county abbreviation – number – year)

The implementation of a computerized system will likely complicate the process. That was the case with the computerized statewide expungement system. This is  probably because government awards the contracts for the program implementation to the most politically-connected as opposed to the most qualified.