NJ Concealed Permit Denied for Lt. Colonel with ‘Senior Position’ at Arsenal

A U.S. Army Lt. Colonel with a “senior position” at Wharton’s Picatinny Arsenal is being a denied a concealed carry permit in New Jersey on grounds that he does not meet the “justifiable need” threshold for issuance.

Lt. Col. Terry S. Russell is 27-years-old and “serves as the product manager for the Army’s Individual Weapons and Small Arms program.”

According to NJ 101.5, Oceanport Police Chief Daniel W. Barcus rejected Russell’s application for a permit on the grounds it did not demonstrate “justifiable need” to carry a weapon. Russell “appealed to Superior Court,” only to have the Judge Joseph W. Oxley agree with the denial and uphold it.

Russell has been “vetted” by the Department of Defense every five years–during the past 25 years–for the purposes of maintaining “Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information clearance.” Moreover, he trains and qualifies at least once a year to “skillfully employ handguns and rifles.”

But the state of New Jersey has an artificial threshold for the exercise of Second Amendment rights, and Chief Barcus and Judge Oxley do not believe Lt. Col. Russell meets it.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.