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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

INTEREST OF AMICI ..................................................................................................................1

ARGUMENT ..................................................................................................................................1

I) The New Jersey Permitting Scheme Implicates the Constitutional Framework 

for the Protection of Second Amendment Rights ......................................................1

A) Heller held that the Second Amendment protects two unique and 

distinct individual self-defense rights: to keep arms and to bear arms ....................2 

B) McDonald incorporated Heller to protect against infringement by 

unreasonable state government regulations .............................................................3 

C) Miller proves that the New Jersey permitting statute implicates a 

Protected Second Amendment activity: handgun possession ..................................3 

II) The Justifiable Need Requirement is Unconstitutional Because it is an 

Unreasonable Regulation of the Second Amendment’s Right to Bear Arms .........4

A) The Justifiable Need Requirement is Applied so Stringently that Private 

Citizens are Prohibited from Exercising the Right to Bear Arms ............................4 

B) The Justifiable Need Requirement as Applied Makes Victimization a Precondition 

to the Exercise of Second and Fourteenth Amendment Rights ...............................5 

III) Delegating the Discretion to Determine Justifiable Need is Unconstitutional 

Because it is an Unreasonable Regulation of the Second Amendment’s 

Right to Bear Arms ......................................................................................................6

A) Exercise of this Discretion has Proven to be the Functional Equivalent 

of a Ban on the Right to Bear Arms for Private Citizens .........................................6 

B) The Availability of Judicial Review has Not Checked the Abuse 

of Discretion Exercised by Police ............................................................................7 

CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................8

 

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INDEX OF AUTHORITIES 

Cases 

Application of “X,” 59 N.J. 533, 284 A.2d 530 (1971) ...................................................................8 

District of Columbia v Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 128 S. Ct. 2783 (2008) .............................2, 3, 4, 5, 6 

Doe v Dover Tp, 216 N.J. Super. 539, 524 A.2d 469 (1987) ...........................................................8 

In re Application of Borinsky, 363 N.J. Super. 10, 830 A.2d 507 (2003) ....................................6, 7 

In re Preis, 118 N.J. 564, 573 A.2d 149 (1990) ..........................................................................5, 7 

Matter of Johnson, 267 N.J. Super. 600, 632 A.2d 539 (1993) .......................................................8 

McDonald v Chicago, 130 S. Ct. 3020, 177 L. Ed. 894 (2010).......................................................3 

Parker v District of Columbia, 478 F.3d 370, 375 U.S. App. D.C. 140 (2007) ..............................4 

Siccardi v State, 59 N.J. 545, 284 A.2d 533 (1971) ................................................................5, 6, 7 

Reilly v State, 59 N.J. 559, 284 A.2d 541 (1971) ........................................................................5, 8 

US v Miller, 307 U.S. 174, 59 S. Ct. 816 (1939) .............................................................................3 

Statutes 

NJS § 2A:151-44.2...........................................................................................................................7 

NJS § 2C:58-4 ..................................................................................................................................4 

US Constitution, Second Amendment ..........................................................................................1,2

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