You can’t take guns most places in NJ after federal judges upheld a contested 2022 state law banning them in “sensitive places.” (Aristide Economopoulos for New Jersey Monitor)
It might seem like New Jersey’s controversial ban on guns applies “nearly everywhere that ordinary human action occurs,” as U.S. Circuit Court Judge David J. Porter groused in his dissent of his colleagues’ decision Wednesday to uphold the contested restrictions.
But gun owners with carry permits can take their firearms to a short list of locations — at least until some future judge intervenes in the legal battle that started just after Gov. Phil Murphy signed the law in December 2022. Gun-rights groups have said they will continue fighting to get the restrictions struck down permanently.
So where can gun owners who are licensed to carry take their guns? They can carry in private vehicles and on private property that’s open to the public, such as homes and businesses, with property owners’ permission. They can also carry while hunting and fishing.
The 2022 law makes it a third-degree crime, punishable by up to five years imprisonment, to take guns into 25 so-called sensitive spaces. Gun owners cannot carry guns into these places in New Jersey:
Parks, playgrounds, recreational areas, and beaches
Public libraries and museums
Bars and other places that serve alcohol
Arenas, stadiums, theaters, theme parks, racetracks, and other entertainment facilities
Airports, transit hubs, and public transportation
Within 100 feet of public gatherings
Hospitals, outpatient clinics, medical treatment centers, nursing homes, group homes, and health care offices
Schools, day cares, camps, school buses, and colleges and universities
Churches, synagogues, and other houses of worship
Private homes and businesses not open to the public (unless the owner allows it)
Correctional facilities and halfway houses
Shelters for people experiencing homelessness or recovering from domestic violence
Cannabis retailers and dispensaries
Guns already were banned in courthouses, polling places, government buildings, and legislative assemblies.
Federal law also forbids guns, even with a permit, at federal courthouses, buildings, prisons, cemeteries, military bases (except for military personnel), post offices, buildings in national parks and forests, and Native American reservations, plus on Amtrak trains and ferries to national monuments.
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