TRENTON — A lawmaker wants to make it easier for New Jersey residents to carry handguns, and he thinks the state can make some money in the process. State Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May) introduced a bill last week that would allow residents to carry handguns if they go through a background check, complete courses in firearms safety...
State Sen. Jeff Van Drew has proposed legislation allowing permitted N.J. residents to carry handguns.TRENTON — A lawmaker wants to make it easier for New Jersey residents to carry handguns, and he thinks the state can make some money in the process.
State Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May) introduced a bill last week that would allow residents to carry handguns if they go through a background check, complete courses in firearms safety and the lawful use of force, pass a test and pay an annual $500 fee.
Current state law only gives carry permits to those who demonstrate a "justifiable need" to their local police chief and then a Superior Court judge — a nearly impossible hurdle, Van Drew says.
"You have to fear for your life, that you’re going to be killed, in essence," said Van Drew. "It’s virtually never done."
Van Drew owns two handguns — but he can’t carry them around.
New Jersey residents may purchase handguns through a permit process that involves being fingerprinted by local police and undergoing a background check. A permit must be obtained for each handgun purchased, and the buyer must go through a background check each time he or she wants to buy another pistol.
The state also has strict regulations guiding how handgun owners may transport their pistols outside their homes, requiring the pistol to be placed, unloaded, in a fastened case and carried in the trunk of a vehicle. If the vehicle has no trunk or separate compartment, the unloaded handgun must be kept in a locked box out of reach of passengers.
Those rules also apply to the handgun owners who hold special "carry permits" unless otherwise specified in the permit that allows them to have their handgun on their person. Each "carry permit" is tailored to the person holding it, setting the specific hours in a day, days in a week and the exact locations and circumstances in which a handgun owner may carry his or her gun.
Van Drew represents a largely rural and traditionally Republican South Jersey district and is one of the Legislature’s most conservative Democrats. He opposed the "one-handgun-a-month" bill that took effect in January.
Since 2007, New Jersey has issued 1,595 new and renewed handgun carry permits, according to State Police spokesman Julian Castellanos. Those figures do not include permits for armored car employees and retired police officers.
Van Drew said he based his bill (S2264) loosely on laws in nearby states such as Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
Pennsylvania — which has a population of 12.6 million to New Jersey’s 8.7 million and has more relaxed handgun carry laws — issued 165,857 permits last year at $26 each. Pennsylvania’s gun permits are good for five years, while New Jersey’s expire after two.
"It’s relatively safe to say there are more than 500,000 active firearm carry permits in Pennsylvania," said trooper Paul Anderson, that state’s supervisor of the firearms administrative section.
Connecticut, which has 3.5 million residents and charges a $70 fee for permits, issued 11,948 new carry permits last year and renewed 21,331. Connecticut State Police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance said the state took in $750,000 in the first five months of 2009 — the latest data available.
Van Drew said the $500 annual fee — up from $20 every two years — would mean "tens of millions" of dollars in new state revenue. To reach the $10 million mark, 20,000 people would have to shell out the $500.
Van Drew also said changing the law could head off possible lawsuits challenging its constitutionality, based on the Supreme Court striking down handgun bans in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
"There are folks on both sides of this issue and both aren’t going to be happy with me. But I’m trying to strike a thoughtful medium," he said.
Indeed, the bill does not please either side.
"The $500 fee is outrageous. The proficiency requirements are excessive," said Scott Bach, president of the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs. "The idea that a hefty price tag should be attached to a constitutional right is outrageous."
Gun control activists also slammed the bill.
"Senator Van Drew, for whatever reason, is kowtowing to the pro-gun forces of darkness who want to turn this country into an armed society," said Bryan Miller, executive director of Ceasefire NJ. "It’s very simple: Do we want to be standing in line at a grocery store, at a movie theater, sitting next to someone in a church or anywhere else not knowing whether that person is legally carrying a handgun?"
Van Drew admits getting his bill passed by the Democrat-controlled Legislature is a "long shot."
"I would ask people not to think with emotion but just to think rationally and methodically about this," he said.