WASHINGTON — On October 14, the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice announced that it opened an investigation into Pennsauken, New Jersey, over alleged unconstitutional firearms-related permitting delays within the township’s police department.
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“Our investigation aims to discover if allegations of unconstitutional delays in firearm permitting are true, and if so, to fix it,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, who added in her announcement on X that, “The right to bear arms is protected by the Constitution for every American – it is not a second-class right!”
How the Civil Rights Division came to be aware of the possible constitutional violations in Pennsauken is unknown, but News2A has documented numerous instances of various New Jersey municipalities where delays have been reported in a segment we call The Infringement Report. In some cases, after our media inquiries, residents were rapidly issued their permits after experiencing unexplained delays.
“I have directed the Civil Rights Division, through our Second Amendment Section, to defend law-abiding citizens from local authorities who infringe on the right to safely carry legal firearms,” said Ms. Dhillon.
As the press statement notes, when a state’s permitting process is put towards “abusive ends” and “lengthy wait times in processing license applications or exorbitant fees deny ordinary citizens their right to public carry,” then it is a violation of the Second Amendment, according to the Bruen Supreme Court decision.
While issuing authorities in New Jersey have a 90-day statutory limit to issue a carry permit and a 30-day statutory limit to issue a pistol purchase permit, it’s a known fact that the state-run system has a built-in delay, even though the entire system is now electronic.
When it comes to fees, New Jersey has some of the highest in the nation and recently raised the NICS portal administration fee by 200%, a move that received significant criticism from FFLs within the state.
Other firearms permit-related fees include:
- Firearms ID card application: Increased from $5 to $50 in 2022
- Pistol purchase permit application: Increased from $2 to $25 in 2022
- Permit to carry: Increased from $20 to $200 in 2022
- Dealer-facing NICS fee for long guns: Increased from $15 to $19 in 2026
- Dealer-facing NICS fee for handguns: Increased from $16 to $20 in 2026
- Convenience fee for using E-Permit system: $1 per transaction
- Ammunition point-of-sale fee: $1.50 – $5.00 per transaction
To combat these fees, 27 municipalities (and counting) have passed a permit-to-carry rebate measure, returning some or all of the state-mandated municipal portion of the fee to the individual.
Though the Civil Rights Division has authored amicus briefs in major Second Amendment cases out of New Jersey, this is the first firearms-related investigation into the state by the division.
