The Second Amendment Foundation filed a proposed amicus brief on September 8 asking the New Jersey Supreme Court to take up an appeal over a denied Firearms Purchaser Identification Card. The filing supports the applicant, identified as A.A.R., at the certification stage. The court has not agreed to hear the merits. The case is docketed as No. 092287 and comes from a June 18, 2026 Appellate Division judgment in No. A-003192-24.

The denial under review

The challenged provision is N.J.S.A. 2C:58-3(c)(5). It permits denial when issuance would not serve the public health, safety, or welfare because an applicant is found to lack the essential character or temperament needed to be entrusted with a firearm. SAF describes that language as an open-ended suitability test. Its brief contrasts the provision with other statutory disqualifiers based on defined facts, including a felony conviction, current confinement for a mental disorder, a restraining order, or being younger than 18.

According to the brief, A.A.R. has not been charged with a crime and is not federally prohibited from possessing firearms. It says he has owned firearms for years and holds carry permits from ten other states, specifically naming Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Maryland among them. Those assertions come from SAF's filing, which incorporates the procedural history and facts in A.A.R.'s Appellate Division briefing rather than reproducing that underlying record in full.