The State of New Jersey under Governor Phil Murphy intends to tax your Constitutional rights to the point of being nearly inaccessible for the average citizen, according to the new State budget proposal published on February 27.
Instead of reducing spending, the State’s solution is to increase costs to taxpayers. The budget reads, “To avert the need for further spending reductions, the budget assumes the adoption of modest increases to fees charged by the Bureau of Securities, firearm permit and license fees…”
The State intends to increase the cost of a basic Firearms Identification Card (the minimum requirement to possess, transport and purchase a firearm) by 200%. Under the new budget, FID cards would double at $100, along with purchase permits rising to $50 and concealed carry permits also rising to $400 from $200.
In 2022, the “carry-killer” bill signed by Murphy increased the state’s handgun permit application fees from $2 to $25 and concealed carry permit fees from $50 to $200. That law is currently being challenged in court.
“He’s been trying to increase fees from the moment he took office,” said Scott Bach, head of the New Jersey Association of Rifle and Pistol Clubs. “It’s a tried-and-true method of anti-gun bureaucrats to limit the Second Amendment rights of gun owners.”
The detailed schedule of new fees were not specifically laid out in the budget, but according to sources on Reddit, a government official provided a line item list via email which has since been widely distributed on social media and has not been repudiated by the Governor’s office.
Incidentally, the budget contains an appended Schedule 1 form that shows state revenue as tied to various permits. It completely omits anything related to firearms other than “Retired Officer Handgun Permits” for which it processed 525 permits in 2023 and estimates 546 in 2024. It makes no mention of how many Permits to Carry a concealed handgun have been issued since July of 2022.
The budget is being presented to the New Jersey legislature for consideration. The legislature currently has a Democrat majority that’s likely to fully support additional fees and taxes on anything related to Second Amendment activities, if the past is any indication.
Fucking commie scumbag!!