In 2020 I moved from Oak Park to New Jersey (Montclair). In Oak Park I was a member of the Gun Responsibility Advocates (GRA) group that works for regulation to improve firearm safety and reduce gun violence in Oak Park and around the nation. I was determined to get involved in similar efforts in New Jersey.
To my surprise, I discovered that New Jersey has the nation’s second most stringent gun laws after California and one of the lowest gun death rates in the U.S., as well as the lowest suicide rate. In fact, the recently re-elected New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is urging state legislators to pass stricter gun legislation during the current legislative session that ends Jan. 10, 2022.
By contrast, Illinois is not doing so well in this regard with a gun death rate that is 2.6 times higher than New Jersey and a mixed record on gun laws. The Illinois suicide rate is also higher. I was perplexed by this difference because the two states have much in common, and I started looking for answers to explain it.
Both states have urban-rural differences, a majority Democratic legislature, a history of corruption, had and still have their share of inner-city gun violence, and most illegal guns come from out of state (Indiana or Pennsylvania and further south, respectively). On closer inspection there are major differences that may play a role in the discrepancy in gun regulation. Illinois has many more rural areas (81%), where residents are often opposed to gun regulation. By contrast, 67% of counties in New Jersey are mostly urban and suburban with many more residents supporting at least some level of gun regulation. And then there are major differences in how and when gun regulation evolved.
In Illinois handguns were banned in 1949, and later several Illinois municipalities created their own handgun bans. However, after the U.S. Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller declared the D.C. ban on handguns unconstitutional in 2008, towns including Wilmette, Morton Grove, Evanston, and Winnetka repealed their bans but Chicago and Oak Park did not. In 2010, the Supreme Court overturned the handgun bans in Chicago and Oak Park. The Illinois Firearm Concealed Carry Act created a mechanism for issuing concealed carry licenses in 2013, activated in 2014; Illinois was the last state in the nation to pass a law allowing concealed carry. Bans on assault-style firearms remain in place in some municipalities, including Oak Park.
New Jersey, by contrast, did not enact strong gun regulation until 1966, but then its legislature voted into law “An Act Concerning Firearms and Other Dangerous Weapons,” the most stringent gun legislation written in the U.S. up to that point. It strengthened regulations on gun dealers and gun buyers. Not surprisingly, the National Rifle Association (NRA) and other gun rights groups mounted a ferocious campaign to derail this law but failed to do so, probably in large part because of support from law enforcement for the bill, the recent assassination of John F. Kennedy, the rising crime rate in the state, and the murder of a state trooper during the debate prior to voting on the bill. Subsequent attempts to overturn this law have proven unsuccessful. The 1966 New Jersey legislation became a model for the federal gun legislation following the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. The Gun Control Act passed by Congress in 1968 restricted interstate commerce in firearms and the importation of guns, but did not go as far as requiring gun permits or registration.
The 1966 New Jersey bill required a separate permit for each handgun and a firearms purchaser identification card to buy a rifle or shotgun. Applicants for firearm permits were required to have their fingerprints taken, disclose any history of mental health issues and criminal convictions, provide character references, and pay a $2 fee (now $50). The bill also required gun dealers to keep detailed records of handgun sales, including the serial number of each gun sold, and provide this information to law enforcement. This legislation was subsequently further strengthened and most recently New Jersey was the first state to comprehensively regulate untraceable and undetectable firearms, or “ghost guns.” Importantly, the law also required applicants to demonstrate a “need” to carry a concealed weapon.
The assassination of a few high-profile individuals, a rising crime rate, and the violent reactions to Dr. King’s murder were apparently enough to have the New Jersey legislature and the U.S. Congress pass gun regulation between 1966 and 1968.
Today however, even in the face of large numbers of mass shootings, including massacres in schools, and an increasing murder rate (but not crime rate), the opposite appears to be happening with weakening or repealing of gun regulations and strengthening of gun rights in the U.S.
Three lessons that one can learn from gun regulation history in New Jersey are:
1) the NRA can be defeated,
2) strong gun regulations can be sustained over time, at least in a “blue” state, and
3) a requirement to prove the “need” to carry a concealed gun can get around the overturned handgun bans. However, the conservative supermajority in the Supreme Court may overturn the “need” for a concealed gun permit (aka “may issue”), following oral arguments on Nov. 3 in the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen case. If the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association wins this case, it will open the flood gates to people obtaining concealed carry permits, even in New Jersey; Illinois is a so-called “shall issue” state and one can get a concealed carry permit with only few preconditions.
The Texas anti-abortion law may also impact gun regulation around the country if it is sustained by the Supreme Court (unlikely), but has the potential to allow more gun regulation at the state level. It seems that we are at a pivotal point in the history of gun regulation in our country and I am fearful for what the future holds, particularly given the propensity to favor “stand your ground” and “self-defense” if concealed carried guns are allowed to mushroom everywhere.
Maarten Bosland is a former Oak Park resident who now lives in Montclair, New Jersey. He is a member of Gun Responsibility Advocates.