On June 25, a New Jersey gun owner contacted the News2A team through our Infringement Report form for help with an outstanding Permit to Carry application in Woodcliff Lake. (If you’re not familiar with the Infringement Report, it’s a powerful tool we’ve developed to help gun owners hold local municipalities accountable.) What unfolded was a good reminder about asserting your rights and dealing with an entrenched system that is designed to delay your rights.
For the sake of anonymity, we’ll call the person in this story Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson had submitted his completed renewal application for his Permit to Carry roughly three months prior. His references had been verified almost immediately after application, and he had not received any other communication from his local Police Department (Woodcliff Lake). He was seeking help from the News2A team and wondering whether his case would make a good Infringement Report. We emailed back and forth to get additional information and perspective.
According to NJ NICS data, the average time to approve a Permit to Carry application in Woodcliff Lake is 86 days, just at the edge of the statutory time limit of 90 days. Naturally curious as to when his permit would be approved, Mr. Johnson emailed the permitting officer three weeks before reaching out to us, but he received no response. He had also texted the Woodcliff Lake mayor, who responded that he was not surprised about the lag time, but said it’s a state issue.
Of course, this is misleading. Towns like Mendham are issuing permits in as little as seven days, which is the earliest the state-run system allows the local police department to approve an application, functionally a built-in delay. Given that towns can approve this quickly, it seems to be either a manpower issue or an unofficial policy of foot-dragging that many towns delay the issuance until just before the statutory limitation. Our inside information indicates it’s often the latter.
Roughly ten days after contacting us, Mr. Johnson contacted the Woodcliff Lake Police Chief directly, following up with his unanswered message to the permitting officer, and informing the Chief that the department was past the 90-day statutory limit, and also showing them data on how slowly they were processing applications compared to other municipalities.
The Chief responded to Mr. Johnson within minutes and indicated he’d be following up right away. By the end of that day, Mr. Johnson received an email from the issuing officer that the permit was ready and awaiting the chief’s signature. He received his permit the following morning.
When Mr. Johnson relayed this information to us, we asked his opinion on the cause of the delays. He responded:
Hard to say for sure but…last year I had to wait almost as long, maybe 75 days, to get a pistol purchase permit (30-day statutory limit to issue), so “permitting” is probably not a priority for the permitting officer…but likely the department needs a permitting officer who is a little more responsive to permit requests.
There are a few takeaways from this story. One is a reminder that New Jersey has integrated within its systems a mechanism to delay permitting. Second, there are good police officers and chiefs who are trying to do the right thing, and there are also municipalities that willingly infringe on citizens’ Constitutional rights (see this story about Fort Lee making up its own non-standard paperwork in violation of state law). Third is that you must always be your own advocate, know the law, and assert your rights when they are being violated.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you believe you have a story worthy of consideration for The Infringement Report.
