What is "Justifiable Need"
You decide what you are going to eat, how you will dress for the weather, and if you want to use safety gates in your home to keep your children out of the bathroom or from crawling up the stairs. When you leave your home, it is your choice to take the car or a bus, and when you go to sleep at night, you decide whether to lock your doors or set your house alarms.

However, when it comes to deciding which method you wish to use to protect your life and to defend the safety of your children, in the state of New Jersey the decision is not yours. All across the United States, families, single parents, business owners, and just plain folk are making the choice every day as to how they protect themselves and their loved ones, but here in New Jersey, you do not have that choice. Our legislative body has made a conscious choice to deny you your right. You might ask, "How is that possible? How can they do that"? Unfortunately, it's quite simple. By writing into the administrative code N.J.S.A. 2C:58-4d, that a person must show a "Justifiable Need".

To be granted a New Jersey permit to carry a handgun outside of your residence or a place of business (owned by you), one must demonstrate a "Justifiable Need". This is an extraordinarily difficult and fundamentally unfair requirement for the average citizen to meet. In fact an average citizen cannot meet this standard because it requires proof of a "special danger". It mandates that the only way a private citizen may achieve it, is if the applicant can:

"specify in detail the urgent necessity for self protection, as evidenced by specific threats or previous attacks which demonstrate a special danger to the applicant's life that cannot be avoided by means other than by issuance of a permit to carry a handgun. N.J.A.C 13:54-2.4.

From biker gangs to street thugs, home invaders to car jackers, common criminals and the miscreants of society that prey upon the public at large, the common denominator is a lack of fear of an armed response. It has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that New Jersey residents have been denied the right of self-protection.

Our goal is to eliminate the "Justifiable Need" clause, so that New Jersey residents once again have the right to choose how they would protect themselves and their loved ones.