Bruen Unlocks New Jersey Carry

New Jersey — long one of the most restrictive states in the country — has issued more concealed carry permits since July 2022 than in the previous three decades combined.

Catch up quick:

• Before Bruen, New Jersey required applicants to prove a "justifiable need" — essentially a credible threat on your life — to carry a handgun in public.
• On June 23, 2022, the Supreme Court's decision in NYSRPA v. Bruen struck down that standard nationwide.
• New Jersey issued just 667 permits in the three years before Bruen. It blew past that number before August 2022 was over.

By the numbers: From July 2022 through December 2025, New Jersey law enforcement agencies approved 88,205 carry permits — a 99.5% approval rate on all applications filed.

• That's roughly 943 permits per 100,000 residents, still well under the national average of 6,108 per 100,000.
• Toms River, a township of 98,000 people, led the state with 1,622 new permits — more than Newark, which has three times the population.
• Eight of the top 20 permit-issuing municipalities are in Ocean and Monmouth counties.

The jersey permitting process still has teeth. Applicants must be 21+, hold a Firearms Purchaser ID (which requires references, criminal background checks, and mental health screening), already own the handgun they're permitting, and complete live-fire qualification and use-of-force training before a permit is issued. The state also passed a "sensitive places" law after Bruen, restricting carry in schools, churches, and bars.

"When you look at this from the perspective of the rest of the country, the real question is: Where has New Jersey been?" — Scott Bach, Executive Director, Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs

The big picture: New Jersey is still an outlier — less than 1% of its 9.5 million residents hold a carry permit. Pennsylvania sits at 13%. Michigan is near 8.4%. Virginia, 7.9%. The state bans open carry entirely and remains one of five states where that's expressly prohibited by law. The Bruen decision forced the door open; it didn't knock the building down.

What Idaho owners should know: This isn't a New Jersey story. It's a Bruen story. The same constitutional framework that dismantled New Jersey's "justifiable need" standard is the one courts are now applying to suppressor regulations, magazine capacity limits, and carry restrictions in other blue states. Every legal challenge filed under Bruen builds on this precedent — including cases that affect Idaho gun owners directly. Watch which states are still fighting the ruling in circuit courts. That's where the next battles land.