More than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark decision struck down some of the toughest gun control restrictions in the country, thousands of people in New Jersey have been looking to arm themselves.
New data released this past week by the state Attorney General’s office shows a big increase in the number of carry permit applications since the 2022 court ruling.
Just 631 carry permits were approved in New Jersey in 2021, the year before the court took action, according to the data.
Last year alone, 19,933 carry permits were approved in the state.
The numbers presented in an electronic “dashboard” reflect the first complete picture of the number of those seeking to carry guns in New Jersey. Statewide data was previously not available because applications for permits to carry had been submitted on paper to individual police departments and not centralized, officials said. That changed after Attorney General Matthew Platkin issued a general directive in June 2023 requiring such data to be submitted monthly to the state.
“Transparency is a key component to enhancing public safety. The data available in this dashboard allows its users to gain an understanding of where in New Jersey the applications for permits to carry firearms is increasing,” Platkin said.
The numbers show that the greatest number of gun carry permits issued since the June 2022 Supreme Court decision were approved in Toms River, where 742 were issued from July 1, 2022 through February of this year. The City of Newark, which approved 732 permits during that time period was second. And Old Bridge was third, with 428 carry permits approved.
Handed down by the high court in June 2022, the ruling known as New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, more commonly known as the Bruen decision, marked a paradigm shift in the nation’s gun policy.
Restricting how states like New Jersey — known for some of the toughest gun control laws in the country — could handle concealed…
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