NJ Carry Permits Explode Post-Bruen

New Jersey went from one of the most restrictive carry states in the country to issuing 88,000 concealed carry permits in three years—because a court made them.

Catch up quick:

• Before Bruen (2022), NJ required applicants to show "justifiable need"—a standard so vague and hostile that fewer than 700 permits cleared in three years
• NYSRPA v. Bruen struck down "may-issue" schemes like NJ's, replacing the subjective test with a historical tradition standard
• In the three years since, NJ has issued more than 88,000 permits—a 125x increase

The big picture: This isn't a New Jersey story. It's a Bruen story. The same pattern is playing out in California, Maryland, Hawaii, and every other state that used administrative gatekeeping to effectively nullify the Second Amendment. When courts remove the bureaucratic veto, people carry. A lot of them.

Zoom in: Toms River—a Shore town of about 100,000—became what the source calls the concealed carry capital of New Jersey. That's not an accident. It reflects where the permitting infrastructure actually processed applications, but it also signals that demand was never the problem. Access was.

Reality check: NJ didn't just hand over the permits graciously. The legislature responded to Bruen by passing the Carry Killer Act—restricting where permit holders could carry, adding insurance mandates, and banning carry in most "sensitive places." Courts have been blocking pieces of it ever since. The permit numbers are real. The fight over where those permits are actually valid is ongoing.

What Idaho owners should know: Idaho is a constitutional carry state. No permit required to carry concealed. But what's happening in NJ matters here for one reason: Bruen's historical tradition test is the same legal standard now governing every firearm regulation challenge in federal court—including ones that affect Idaho gun owners. The stronger that precedent holds, the harder it becomes for any government to treat carry as a privilege to be rationed.

The bottom line: 88,000 permits in three years. The demand was always there. Courts just stopped letting politicians ignore it.