New Jersey Governor’s Crime-Fighting Plan: 700% Fee Increase for Concealed Carry Permits

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s (D) crime-fighting plan includes a 700 percent fee increase for concealed carry permits.

The increase would raise the permit price from $50 to $400.

NJ.com reports that Murphy is seeking rate hikes across the board for firearms and access to firearms. He wants to raise the cost of “handgun purchase permits from $2 to $50,” firearms identification cards from $5 to $100, and licenses for retail gun dealers from $50 to $500.

What would these fees mean? They would mean that law-abiding citizens who go through the state’s legal channels for firearm acquisition would see the costs for firearms skyrocket. Poorer law-abiding families would, no doubt, see firearm ownership as cost-prohibitive.

Scott Bach, Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs director, observed, “[Murphy’s proposals are] intended to punish law-abiding gun owners for the acts of criminals and madmen and discourage the exercise of Second Amendment rights.”

Murphy’s gun control push comes less than a week after a violent criminal, 33-year-old Tahaji Wells, used a gun to open fire on other gang members at Art All Night in Trenton, New Jersey. Wells was barred from firearm possession by New Jersey state law and was out on the streets because of early release from prison, but Breitbart News reported that Murphy has not said a word about these things. Rather, he is pushing more gun control for law-abiding citizens via monstrous price increases.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.