Applications for permits to carry guns have spiked in both New York City and New Jersey since the U.S. Supreme Court ordered New York and other states with strict regulations to make it easier for people to arm themselves in the summer of 2022.
In New York City, the NYPD received more than 11,000 applications for concealed carry permits between 2022 and the beginning of this March, according to the most recent police data. More than 1,800 people applied in just the first two months of 2024. The department won’t say how many applications its licensing division has approved.
In comparison, the NYPD received only 315 applications for concealed carry permits in all of 2021, according to police data.
In New Jersey, officials received about 41,000 new applications between 2022 and June 30, 2024. Almost 12,500 of them came in just the first six months of 2024, according to a Gothamist analysis of state data. Hundreds more applied to renew their existing permits. Gothamist found that officials approved more than 99% of applications during that time. The year prior to the ruling, only 274 people applied for new carry permits in New Jersey and another 381 applied for renewals, state data show.
New Jersey started publishing anonymized data on carry permits earlier this year. The database includes the number of applications, approvals and denials, as well as applicants’ races, genders, age ranges and counties. It does not include applicants’ names or addresses. It also provides the reasons why some applications were denied, such as a domestic violence record.
“Most people are getting the carry license just for self defense, home protection,” said Lateif Dickerson, master instructor at the New Jersey Firearms Academy in Jersey City. “A lot of people are not going to rely on the police for their personal safety. They’d rather be able to protect their self and their family.”
Dickerson, a Second Amendment supporter, teaches courses required by the state for permit applicants, including shooting practice and classes on self-defense laws. He also assists with the application process. He said a wave of people rushed to get their permits after the Supreme Court ruling.
“We’re pretty busy here,” he said.
Dickerson said he wasn’t surprised that New Jersey’s approval rate for carry permits is so high, because the applicants had already been vetted when they bought their handguns. Residents first have to get a permit to buy a handgun, which requires an application and fingerprinting. But he said most of his students are arming themselves because they want to take advantage of the fact that it’s easier to obtain a carry permit now, rather than because they’re more afraid for their safety.
“Just because people get the carry license, doesn’t mean that they’ll be carrying the firearm,” Dickerson said. “But they like to have it.”
Before the Supreme Court ruling, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, New Jersey and New York had some of the country’s most stringent standards for obtaining a permit to carry a handgun in public.
Both states rewrote their permitting laws after the 2022 decision, to comply with the court’s ruling. They also added new requirements for applicants and banned even most permit holders from bringing firearms to many places, including schools, homeless shelters and protests. Lawmakers said preventing gun violence was the goal. Those laws are facing ongoing litigation.
An analysis by the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety found states with tighter gun laws tend to also have fewer gun deaths per 100,000 residents. Everytown ranked both New York and New Jersey among the states with the strictest gun laws, and both states experienced lower rates of shooting deaths than the national average.
The group’s policy counsel Mary Kenah expressed concern about the increase in concealed carry permit applications following the Supreme Court ruling. But she said in a statement that she’s happy New Jersey’s attorney general is publishing data on the changing trends.
“This data will empower his office and other stakeholders to work with lawmakers and local leaders alongside their lawmakers and local leaders to save lives in a post-Bruen world,” Kenah said.