NJ Governor Pushes To Increase Cost Of Gun Ownership

Remember, one of the talking points from the gun grabbers is that they don’t want to interfere with the Constitutional rights of law abiding citizens to own a firearm, they just want to keep them out of the hands of criminals. Where does this one fit in?

Phil Murphy wants to make it a lot more expensive to buy a gun in N.J.

Gov. Phil Murphy is proposing to significantly hike fees for buying and selling firearms in New Jersey, a move that would raise the cost of gun permits and licenses for the first time in half a century and likely trigger a legal challenge from Second Amendment advocates.

Murphy, a Democrat who has already signed half a dozen gun control bills in his first few months in office, has publicly called for raising such fees.

“It’s hard to believe it’s actually cheaper to get a permit to purchase a handgun, which is $2, than it is to get a dog license in practically any town in our state,” Murphy said at a June 13 bill signing.

Draft legislation obtained by NJ Advance Media shows Murphy wants to raise fees and licenses far beyond the rate of inflation. The proposal, which Murphy’s office shared with legislative leaders as part of the budget process, has not been formally introduced in the state Legislature. (snip)

The plan would raise the cost for handgun purchase permits from $2 to $50; firearms identification cards from $5 to $100; handgun carry permits from $50 to $400; retail gun dealer licenses from $50 to $500; and wholesaler/manufacturer licenses from $150 to $1,500, among other hikes.

That’s a serious jump in cost, wouldn’t you say? And who gets burdened? The law abiding. The purchase permit is only good for 90 days, and would have to be renewed. As I quickly wrote in the the comments

As a lawful gun owner, I’m not against reasonable fees, but, the $2 is simply for a purchase permit, which is good for 90 days (we pay $5 in NC, good for 5 years. But only good for one handgun purchase). You also have to pay $5 for a purchaser ID card. Plus $62.50 for the fingerprints. And a permit to possess and carry a firearm is another $20 $50, and has to be renewed every 2 years.

I pay zero in NC to possess and open carry. Concealed carry is $80, renews every 5 years, and $75 per renewal.

The purchaser ID card is required for any purchase, possession, and carrying of a long gun. So, hunters would pay quite a bit more. The handgun permit has to be renewed every two years, so law abiding citizens would be paying that $400 every two years. None of this would effect criminals, just the law abiding.

But the governor’s public budget plan anticipates $1.4 million in additional revenue from the sale of firearms, and gun control activists continued to press the matter Thursday after learning the idea had not been picked up by Democratic leaders in the state Assembly and Senate.

And that was the other thing I mentioned in the comments: “What Phil is attempting to do isn’t even anti-gun so much as trying to steal more money from taxpayers.” It’s what Democrats do. Raise taxes and fees because they’re not particularly good at being responsible with the money they forcibly take from citizens, and always want more.