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The burden of proving the "need" to carry is the only wat to get the permit.

FEDERAL JUDGE TRASHES

NJ RIGHT TO CARRY LAWSUIT



Clinton-Appointee Holds That Second Amendment

Right to Carry a Handgun Doesn’t Exist Outside the Home



Calls Second Amendment a Unique "Privilege”

That Permits Firearms Users to Cause Injury and Death



Appeals to Follow



On Friday, January 13, 2012, a U.S. District Judge sitting in Newark dismissed the ANJRPC / SAF federal lawsuit challenging New Jersey’s extreme and subjective handgun carry laws, which have all but eliminated the right to self defense with a firearm outside the home in the Garden State.



Judge William H. Walls (a Clinton appointee) ruled that "the Second Amendment does not include a general right to carry handguns outside the home.” Characterizing the Second Amendment, he wrote "that privilege is unique among all other constitutional rights to the individual because it permits the user of a firearm to cause serious personal injury – including the ultimate injury, death – to other individuals, rightly or wrongly.”



In upholding the New Jersey law which effectively denies the right to carry a firearm for self defense outside the home, Judge Walls wrote "the protection of citizens from potentially lethal force is compelling.”



"The judge has it backwards,” said ANJRPC President Scott Bach. "If he really cared about protecting citizens from lethal force, he wouldn’t be interfering with their constitutional right to defend themselves against violent criminals,” said Bach. "Ironically, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the police owe no duty to protect individual citizens, so you’re on your own when you step outside your home,” continued Bach. "This decision wrongly demonizes those who want to take responsibility for their own safety and turns all but a privileged few into helpless victims.”



The full text of Judge Walls’ decision is available here.



"The anti-gun bench hates the Heller decision, so it’s no surprise that some judges will stretch legal interpretation to the breaking point to limit or neutralize Heller,” said Bach, referring to the groundbreaking 2008 Supreme Court case which held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own handguns.



"The Second Amendment Foundation and ANJRPC are prepared to take this case all the way to the US Supreme Court, where SAF has already won two landmark cases defending the rights of gun owners,” said Alan Gottlieb, Founder of SAF.



Judge Walls’ decision sets the stage for appeals which could bring this case to the U.S. Supreme Court as early as next year. The case was filed in late 2010 by ANJRPC, the Second Amendment Foundation, and six individual plaintiffs, challenging New Jersey’s unconstitutional "justifiable need” standard for issuance of handgun carry permits – a nearly impossible standard to meet that has all but eliminated the right to self defense with a firearm in the Garden State. Requiring a showing of "need” to exercise a fundamental right is unconstitutional.



The appeal is expected to be filed later this Winter.