DOJ Probes New Jersey Town Over 90-Day Handgun Permit Delays
The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has opened an investigation into Pennsauken Township, New Jersey, over permit processing times it calls "egregious and unjust." Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon announced the probe, which targets the Pennsauken Township Police Department. Residents report waits of 90 days or more for Permit to Purchase applications. New Jersey requires that permit before anyone can buy a handgun. The DOJ's Second Amendment Section will determine whether those delays violate the Constitution and, if they do, order a fix.
Key Details
- The complaint: Pennsauken resident Christian Benton sued in 2024, backed by the Coalition of New Jersey Firearm Owners and Gun Owners of America. He alleges the department took more than four months to approve two handgun Permit to Purchase applications. State law mandates a 30-day deadline.
- The DOJ's personnel: Stephen D. Stamboulieh, an original attorney for the plaintiffs, now works inside the Civil Rights Division's Second Amendment Section.
- Other complaints: A 2024 Reddit thread featured multiple residents describing similar holdups. One user claimed the department assigns a single employee to process every application.
Why It Matters for Gun Owners
If you buy handguns in New Jersey, the permit is the bottleneck, not the background check. Every purchase starts with a Permit to Purchase, and the state's own 30-day clock is the number to hold local police to. Track your submission date in writing. Ask the department for its processing status in writing too. A paper trail matters if you later need to show a delay. Residents of other New Jersey towns should check their local processing times against that 30-day standard. Collectors and competitive shooters who depend on steady handgun acquisition feel these delays most. A single staffer handling a county's worth of applications produces exactly the backlog Benton describes. Pennsauken is one township, but the pattern is statewide wherever departments run permits without enough staff.
DownRange Analysis
Bruen answered this question. The Court said "lengthy wait times in processing license applications" can serve "abusive ends" that deny ordinary citizens their right to carry. That language applies to permit delays just as cleanly as to outright denials. A permit regime that delays the exercise of a right for months functions as a denial in practice. The DOJ probe is the right tool, but the real test comes later. Watch whether the Benton case, set for a mid-January hearing, reaches summary judgment. Watch also whether DOJ widens the target to New Jersey's one-gun-a-month law, which the department has already challenged in Minnesota. Gun owners should document every delay now, because a federal investigation runs on evidence.
