(Photo: sundrawalex / iStockphoto.com)The last time handgun permit fees were raised in the state of New Jersey was in 1966.
That was the same year that Vietnam War protests were staged, the miniskirt became fashionable and the Miranda warning became law.
And so Gov. Phil Murphy made it clear in his fiscal year 2021 budget address on Feb. 25 that one item that inflation and cost-of-living adjustments have left undeservingly untouched are gun fees, and his administration is proposing increases to many of those fees in the upcoming budget.
There was something seriously amiss, said the governor, when obtaining a dog permit costs
Gov. Phil Murphymore than getting a gun in New Jersey. “I … call, once again, for you to join me in raising the cost of handgun permits for the first time since 1966,” Murphy told a joint meeting of the 219th Legislature for his budget address. “This is not about the Second Amendment. This is about public safety.” He added, “It’s still just $2 to get a handgun permit. It’s still more expensive to buy a dog license. That’s entirely backward. Let’s fix this, so we can keep guns out of the wrong hands.”
His administration has proposed raising handgun permits across the board to raise an estimated $8.5 million in new revenue as part of his $40.9 billion fiscal year 2021 budget, according to the Governor’s Office.
But beyond the revenue, Murphy said it was the right thing to do for the public and law enforcement officers. ”These fees are meant to cover the costs of State Police background checks on prospective gun buyers—and, right now, they don’t come close to doing so,” Murphy said on Feb. 25.
Based on a chart from the Treasury Department that details the Department of Law and Public Safety proposal, here are some of the handgun fee hikes:
- A firearms purchaser ID card would increase from $5 to $100.
- A permit to purchase, from $2 to $50.
- An application or renewal for a permit to carry, from $20 to $400.
- An NICS check for firearms purchase, from $15 to $45.
Wholesalers and retailers also would be subject to fee increases, some significant:
- A wholesale/retail dealer employee license fee would go from $5 to $40.
- A retail firearms dealer license fee would go from $50 to $500.
- An initial or renewal application for retail firearms dealer license for corporations and partnerships would increase from $150 to $1,500.
- And an initial or renewal application for manufacturers and wholesale dealers of firearms would increase from $150 to $1,500.
“In addition, we are proposing a 2.5% excise tax on firearms and a 10% excise tax on ammunition,” said Jennifer Sciortino of the Treasury Department.
William Castner of Connelly Foley’s Cherry Hill, New Jersey, office.William Castner, formerly Murphy’s firearms expert, a cabinet position, said the proposal ”will help law enforcement fund background checks that are necessary to keep firearms out of the wrong hands,” adding, “This is not an exercise New Jersey can afford to shortchange.”
“That these fees haven’t been increased since the mid-1960s in New Jersey is absurd and out of line with a number of surrounding states,” said Castner, who joined Roseland-based Connell Foley as a partner on Jan. 27 to lead the firm’s health care group in its Cherry Hill office.
As Murphy’s senior adviser on firearms policy, Castner worked on legal, regulatory and policy strategies to reduce gun violence in New Jersey, including an executive order by Murphy that attempted to use New Jersey’s purchasing power to effect change in the firearms industry by having the state’s top purchasers of firearms, ammunition and other related equipment buy only from responsible retailers and manufacturers abiding by prevention initiatives, and the 2018 magazine law that limited the number of rounds to 10.
But Scott Bach, executive director of the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs, said the governor’s proposal is off target.
“We’re certainly opposed to it as we have been in years past,” Bach said in a phone call on Wednesday. “We are putting a price tag on a fundamental constitutional right.”
The association is the oldest and largest Second Amendment group in the state, representing approximately 1 million gun owners.
Bach said raising gun permit fees would have a disproportionate affect on lower-income citizens. He also said the FBI already provides free background checks.
“There is a redundancy built into New Jersey law that is unlike most states in the U.S. regarding delay, paperwork, redundant background checks,” Bach said. “Raising fees for background checks that are already provided by the federal government for free only makes sense if the intention is to make it more difficult for law abiding citizens to exercise their constitutional gun rights.
“If the state imposes such a thing, it shouldn’t increase costs. Instead, it should either absorb those costs or eliminate the redundancy,” Bach said.
