New Jersey Allowed to Require ''Justifiable Need'' to Carry a Firearm in Public

Since the Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the Second Amendment includes theright to bear arms in self defense, guns rights advocates, led by the NRA, have challenged laws that have put restrictions on carrying guns in public. Their argument has been that these restrictions prevent them from protecting themselves in public. Many of these challenges have failed, with lower courts ruling that restrictions are in line with the ruling of District of Columbia v Heller, which said that handguns in the home were permissible for self defense.

In the majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote: "Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited. From Blackstone through the 19th-century cases, commentators and courts routinely explained that the right was not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose." The opinion even pointed out that laws banning concealed carry were permissible.

New Jersey's law is very strict and make it all but impossible for anyone not a member of law enforcement to carry a gun in public. It requires gun owners to indicate "specific threats or previous attacks demonstrating a special danger to applicant's life that cannot be avoided by other means" in order to get an open carry permit. Approval must be granted by the local police and a Superior Court judge.

The "justifiable need" requirement survived two lower court challenges, which were upheld in 2012 by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. The plaintiffs petitioned the Supreme Court to challenge the appeals court ruling. This week, the Supreme Court rejected the challenge, leaving in place the 3rd Circuit's ruling and New Jersey's law.

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