N.J. Residents Must Show ‘Justifiable Need’ To Get Permit To Carry Handgun in Public, Court Agrees

A mandate that residents demonstrate an €”œurgent necessity for self-protection”€ to get authorization to publicly carry a handgun doesn’t run afoul of U.S. constitutional protections of the right to bear firearms, a court ruled Wednesday.Getty Images

PHILADELPHIA — New Jersey’s law requiring residents show a “justifiable need” to get a permit to carry a handgun in public was upheld by a federal appeals court.

A mandate that residents demonstrate an “urgent necessity for self-protection” to get authorization to publicly carry a handgun doesn’t run afoul of U.S. constitutional protections of the right to bear firearms, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled Wednesday.

“The justifiable need standard is a longstanding regulation that enjoys presumptive constitutionality,” the panel wrote.

The ruling comes more than four months after the U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed a similar Second Amendment challenge to New York state’s requirement that people wishing to carry a handgun in public show a special need for protection.

Alan Gura, an Alexandria, Va, attorney who represented New Jersey residents challenging the state’s gun- permit law, didn’t immediately return a call after regular business hours Wednesday seeking comment on the ruling.

In the 2010 lawsuit in federal court in New Jersey, four state residents, along with the Second Amendment Foundation Inc. and the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs Inc., argued the justifiable-need standard violated their constitutional rights.