On Wednesday, March 4, West Milford, New Jersey, passed a resolution to rebate the state-mandated municipal portion of the carry permit fee, becoming the 18th municipality to do so across eight different counties, and the second this year.
Resolution 2026-118 was passed unanimously in a vote of 5-0 with one member absent.
The measure was introduced by Councilman Rudy Hass, who was sworn into office in January of this year. “I viewed the state’s fee increase after the Bruen Supreme Court as a retaliatory move designed to burden gun owners trying to exercise a constitutional right with excessive fees,” said Councilman Hass, in a statement to News2A. Hass is a firearms enthusiast, a member at two well-known New Jersey gun ranges, a retired Army veteran, and a VFW Post Commander.
The measure is effective as of March 4 and will allow the town to rebate the full $150 portion of the municipal permit to carry fee when a resident provides proof of payment.
West Milford is the second town to pass such a resolution in 2026, following Plumsted, which passed a similar measure on February 4, in a 4-1 vote.
West Milford also has the unique distinction of being the first New Jersey town to identify itself as a “sanctuary” town friendly to gun owners when it passed a non-binding resolution in December of 2019.
According to the New Jersey Permit to Carry public dashboard, over half a million dollars in fees have been collected by towns rebating carry permit fees since Governor Murphy signed the so-called “carry killer” bill into law in December of 2022. “Collectively, these measures mark a significant savings for gun owners to the tune of over $600,000 in municipal permitting fees in the towns where our resolution has passed,” said Joe LoPorto, the director of legal operations of NJFOS. “Those fees are now gone forever.”
The movement to rebate carry permits came out of a collaboration between three gun rights groups: the New Jersey Firearms Owners Syndicate, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and the National Rifle Association-Institute for Legislative Action. This first-of-its-kind movement has helped many private citizens bring similar measures to their town councils for consideration by providing a policy briefing document with both language that can be used in a bill and suggestions about how to communicate with elected officials.
We have documented the full list of towns on our tracker.
