Brief filed against restrictive New Jersey gun laws
John M. Drake v. Edward A. Jerejian
In New Jersey, it is a crime to possess a firearm
unless you can prove that you fit within one or
more tightly-drawn statutory exemptions. One exemption
allows a person to have a handgun on his own property, but
he may not step one foot beyond unless the
gun is fully disabled and he is heading to an approved
destination.
New Jersey carry permits are like honest
politicians — they are rumored to exist, but few have ever
actually seen one. As one State legislator observed: “It is
virtually never done.” An ordinary person may be granted a
permit only if he can prove to the satisfaction of a judge
that his life is in grave danger. Certain members of the
privileged class of government workers are permitted to
carry firearms; they need only prove that they are currently
or were formerly employed in law enforcement.
Our firm filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, in
support of John M. Drake and several other ordinary New
Jersey citizens who applied for but were denied permits to
carry their handguns in public, because they could not prove
that their lives were in imminent danger. Our brief makes
three arguments.
First, the federal judges below
simply refused to analyze the New Jersey gun control scheme
according to the original meaning of the Second Amendment
and established constitutional norms. Instead, judges in
both courts substituted their own ideas about gun control in
disregard of America’s founders.
Second, New Jersey’s
ban on carrying a firearm rests upon the premise that
firearms are a privilege granted by the state rather than an
inherent, individual right, as held by the U.S. Supreme
Court in the 2010 McDonald
decision.
Third, the right to keep
and bear arms belongs to “all Americans,” as the U.S.
Supreme Court recognized in the 2008
Heller decision. That is because, as the Second
Amendment states, the right is “necessary to the security of
a free State.” New Jersey, on the other
hand, grants the privilege only to current
and former government law enforcement, purportedly to ensure
a “safe” State.
We hope that the
Supreme Court will grant the petition for certiorari in this
case in order to restore the Second Amendment right to carry
a firearm for self defense.
Our brief was filed on
behalf of Gun Owners Foundation, Gun Owners of America,
Inc., U.S. Justice Foundation, Lincoln Institute for
Research and Education, Abraham Lincoln Foundation,
Institute on the Constitution, Conservative Legal Defense
and Education Fund, and Policy Analysis Center.
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