A community in New Jersey has passed a resolution to refund 75 percent of the state’s $200 permit to carry fees, explaining in the resolution “the Borough of Englishtown recognizes that the statutory fee structure imposes financial burdens on applicants and wishes to ease that burden for residents.”
So far, there has been no official reaction from the state.
However, one national grassroots gun rights organization, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, has commended the Borough government for its action.
“Aside from the severe constitutional questions New Jersey’s onerous $200 fee imposes upon applicants,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb in his letter to Englishtown Mayor Daniel Francisco, “this is a real threat that leaves the economically disadvantaged disenfranchised from an inalienable right. Further compounding the issue, as you are aware, New Jersey’s permits are only good for two years. Seeing this body move within their powers to create a rebate vehicle for permit to carry applicants is a show of true leadership.”
New Jersey’s Democrat-controlled Legislature passed the $200 permit fee in reaction to the 2022 Supreme Court’s Bruen ruling, which declared unconstitutional New York’s concealed carry requirement that applicants must show good cause to exercise their right to keep and bear arms. Englishtown Mayor Francisco is a Republican, and since he took office, several members of the city council reportedly resigned, alleging he is trying to consolidate power.
CCRKBA’s Gottlieb told Francisco, “This is a potentially life-saving measure, as people without a high level of financial liquidity will have access to the most effective self-defense tool possible.”
In a chat with TGM, Gottlieb said Englishtown has provided an example he hopes other Garden State municipalities will follow.
As noted by BearingArms.com, “The constitutionality of New Jersey’s statute can be called into question just by looking at the Bruen decision. ‘That said, because any permitting scheme can be put toward abusive ends,’ footnote #9 of Bruen says, ‘we do not rule out constitutional challenges to shall-issue regimes where, for example, lengthy wait times in processing license applications or exorbitant fees deny ordinary citizens their right to public carry.’”
During comments on the refund resolution, Mayor Francisco said, “I think if Englishtown passed the law that said every time you came to tell me your opinion about something, I charged you $150 and if you didn’t pay that fee, you would not be allowed to speak before us, that would be the most unconstitutional and abusive policy I could possibly imagine.”
The refund policy may be unprecedented anywhere in the U.S.
“Governor Phil Murphy and the equally misguided legislature in the Garden State may have forced these fees upon permit to carry applicants,” Gottlieb said in a prepared statement, “but Trenton can’t tell municipalities what they can and cannot do with the funds they collect. In refunding these monies back to the people, it’s a clear message about the unconstitutional nature of the law–A law that Murphy enacted in December of 2022 because Bruen upended the law. The Englishtown mayor had the fortitude to put the unconstitutionality of these fees on the record, calling Trenton out on their hatred towards gun owners and the Second Amendment.”
