A federal judge on Tuesday blocked part of New Jersey’s new handgun carry law that barred weapons from being carried in so-called sensitive places and halted a new insurance mandate the law sought to institute.
Second Amendment rights groups that filed suit against the law hailed the opinion as a victory, while the spokespeople for the Democrat-controlled Legislature’s leaders and Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy stood by the law.
State Attorney General Matt Platkin filed an appeal to the order by chief U.S. District Judge Renee Marie Bumb.
JUDGE BLOCKS NEW JERSEY FROM BANNING GUNS IN MORE ‘SENSITIVE LOCATIONS’
Part of a gun law authorized in December by Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy was blocked Tuesday by a federal judge. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
“This Nation has historically disarmed dangerous individuals or individuals who could endanger the public with a firearm. With some exceptions, Chapter 131’s firearm permitting scheme generally adheres to that historical tradition and aims to keep firearms out of the hands of those who could harm the public,” Bumb wrote.
But the opinion is scathing in parts as well.
“What the Second Amendment prohibits the States from doing, and what the State of New Jersey has done here is to ‘prevent law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms,’” Bumb wrote, quoting the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision on handgun carry permits. “That is plainly unconstitutional.”
Murphy’s spokesperson, Tyler Jones, called the decision “misguided and erroneous.”
“This poorly reasoned decision sends exactly the wrong message as our nation confronts another devastating wave of mass shootings that have taken the lives of many across our country, including children,” Jones wrote in an email.
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