BELLEVUE, Wash. — Sept. 8, 2026 — The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) has filed an amicus brief with the New Jersey Supreme Court in the Matter of the Gun Permit Appeal of A.A.R, supporting petitioner A.A.R.’s request for review of the denial of his Firearms Purchaser Identification Card (FPIC).
The brief challenges N.J.S.A. 2C:58-3(c)(5), which allows New Jersey licensing officials to deny the identification card necessary to own firearms in New Jersey if they conclude that issuance “would not be in the interest of the public health, safety or welfare because the person is found to be lacking the essential character of temperament necessary to be entrusted with a firearm.” SAF argues that this open-ended standard is precisely the type of subjective suitability determination New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen flatly rejected.
A.A.R. was denied a FPIC in large part due to his online speech. A.A.R. is not federally prohibited from owning firearms, and in fact holds carry permits in ten other states, including traditionally strict states like Massachusetts and Maryland.
Respecting freedom of speech inherently prohibits retaliation against speech the government disagrees with, even when that speech is socially or politically objectionable. The relevant constitutional question is whether New Jersey may use protected speech to deny the FPIC necessary to exercise one’s Second Amendment rights, on the statutory grounds that doing so is in the interest of public safety. The First and Second Amendment protect against such subjective gatekeeping of fundamental rights.
“Bruen is clear: licensing officials may apply narrow, objective, and definite criteria,” said SAF Director of Legal Research and Education Kostas Moros. “They may not sit in judgment of an applicant’s ‘character’ or ‘temperament.’ If ten other states, including several with some of the strictest gun laws in the country, issued this applicant carry permits, New Jersey’s outlier denial is powerful evidence of the very subjectivity the Supreme Court forbade. Protected speech, even if it is deeply offensive, cannot be converted into a reason to deny a Second Amendment right.”
For more information, visit SAF.org.
The Second Amendment Foundation (saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group dedicated to safeguarding and promoting the fundamental rights of individuals enshrined in the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. SAF engages in aggressive legal action to ensure the principles of armed self-defense, personal liberty, and the ownership of arms are defended, secured, and restored. Through public education initiatives, SAF teaches the importance of the Second Amendment to promote a society that values and exercises the right to keep and bear arms.
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