The permit-to-carry fee nullification movement has been sweeping across the Garden State. On Tuesday November 25, Howell, N.J. passed a fee rebate resolution, making it a dozen.
On June 11, 2025 a shot heard across the Garden State was fired. Englishtown, N.J. passed a first-in-the-nation resolution that stated a state’s permit-to-carry fee is unconstitutional. Their action made it so that citizens can get a rebate of the municipal portion of their permit-to-carry fees, $150.00. Since then, 11 other towns have joined them. Howell, in Monmouth County and only three towns away from Englishtown, passed a rebate resolution of their own on Tuesday night.
While the permit-to-carry fee nullification movement started sparking in Englishtown, grassroots activists came together in force to support these efforts. The New Jersey Firearms Owners Syndicate, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action joined as a coalition to aid their members in getting these resolutions passed in as many towns as possible.
The Howell Township resolution passed without much fanfare, unanimously — with one councilmember absent. No members of the public spoke out against the council considering the resolution and only one person spoke in favor of it. There were a number of members of the three organizations in the gallery on hand to rebuke comments from any dissenting voices that may have delivered remarks.
Wearing a Firearms Policy Coalition sweatshirt, Mayor Daniel Francisco from Englishtown spoke in support of Howell’s resolution.
“I can tell you that I made a trip to Knoxville, Tennessee back in August for a Gun Owners of America conference,” Francisco said, “New Jersey was the talk of the town at that entire conference. All they talked about was this nullification scheme that many municipalities were engaging in across our state, and there’s been some great groups that have been helping with that.”
Francisco pointed out that the resolution that Howell was considering would only rebate $125.00 of the $150.00 municipal portion. He urged the council to consider adopting a full nullification scheme. Councilman Ian Nadel addressed Francisco’s comment from the dais saying it’s consistent with the firearms identification card processing fee and it accounts for administrative costs.
“The Second Amendment is the only Amendment that seems to be under repeated attack, especially in the state of New Jersey,” Nadel said from the dais prior to the vote. “First Amendment, you’re not taxed on. Third, Fourth, Fifth? No, you’re not paying any of these fees. So why [does] something that provides an equal right under the Constitution have to have these exorbitant taxes and fees attached to it?
“As a Second Amendment supporter, myself, and along with the rest of the council, I hope to have this passed tonight. And we did come down to that $25 the portion that the Township does keep — is due to the fact that [firearm identification] cards are typically a $25 fee as well as handgun purchase permits — for a $25 fee — which require a similar amount of administrative processing, which is permitted constitutionally. However, in my opinion, it’s still $25 too many for each of these.”
Councilman Nadel told Bearing Arms that he’s proud to stand for the rights of firearm owners in Howell, as the Second Amendment is repeatedly attacked in New Jersey. “By refunding the majority of concealed carry permit fees, Howell is removing the financial burden that was unfairly placed on our residents by the State Legislature,” Nadel said. “Residents merely want to exercise their constitutional and natural-born freedoms — all of which are solidified in our Nation’s Bill of Rights.”
Howell Mayor John Leggio, who’s serving the first year of his first term, thanked Francisco for coming out to the meeting to show his support of the council. “This is a big deal for us too, with these gun rights,” Leggio said. “You know, the State of New Jersey [is] violating our rights.”
“We are protected by our Second Amendment rights,” Leggio told Bearing Arms in a statement. “Implementing stricter laws like more permit requirements and fees — they’re infringing on our protections through the courts. It’s an overreach by the states and [these provisions] should be overturned. States should focus more on the criminals than the law abiding citizens.”
Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation and the chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, was an early supporter of the permitting fee rebate resolutions. Gottlieb said he was proud of the progress that’s been made in New Jersey with this initiative spreading across the state.
“There are now a dozen municipalities in the Garden State that have decided to respect the rights of their citizens by not imposing onerous fees on them to exercise a constitutional right,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said. “As more towns resolve that the law passed by the New Jersey legislature is unconstitutional, it weakens the grip the anti-liberty forces have on the people. We’re proud of the grassroots efforts of our members and the members of our partners — the NRA-ILA and NJFOS — in this fight.”
Howell resident Jim Howard was present for the meeting. Howard is a firearms instructor, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Coalition of New Jersey Firearm Owners, and a member of the three organizations championing the initiative.
Howard said that when he was alerted of the movement in Englishtown by a good friend, he immediately set his sights on Howell. He was the first of several residents to reach out to the council about raising the resolution and addressed the council at the town’s July meeting.
“While it took longer than I hoped, I was happy to be a part of the process, and I’m glad the resolution was passed,” Howard told Bearing Arms. “There’s quite a few people on social media saying that ‘we’ should do this town or that town, but the ‘we’ starts with you!
“The information is readily available to send to your town. Send them an email; find out when the next town council meeting is, and tell them that you don’t pay for your other constitutional rights, and you don’t want to pay for your Second Amendment rights! If you post the date, time and location of your town council meeting in the various social media platforms, I’m sure some group members will be able to join and support you.”
Being a grassroots initiative, in Butler in Morris County and Beechwood in Ocean County, NJFOS members executed the passage of the resolutions without support. Syndicate members Henry Montferrante from Butler and Tony Rockill from Beechwood both petitioned their councils and closed without external support from organizational leadership.
Englishtown and Howell mark the first and most recent jurisdictions to pass rebate resolutions respectively, with Howell being the largest population center to date. Since the Englishtown resolution was passed, the following municipalities followed suit: Beachwood, Butler, Dumont, Franklin Borough, Hardyston, Hopatcong, Medford Lakes, and Vernon. Cresskill and Readington passed ordinances, making changes to their laws — not just a resolution.
Vernon’s resolution reverts all firearm permits to pre-2022 law revisions in addition to completely abolishing the permit-to-carry fees. No rebate needed, they don’t charge a fee at all.
In the municipalities that fully rebate their permit-to-carry fees, applicants no longer have any processing fees when seeking a permit to carry. In a federal court ruling from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, the court found New Jersey’s $50.00 state fee unconstitutional.
That court observed that “The statute does not connect that fee to either the administration of the permitting scheme itself or maintenance of public order created by the licensed conduct” and “New Jersey’s [] fee charges applicants for costs neither incidental to nor necessarily caused by their bearing arms.” Therefore, they ruled that the “fee implicates the text of the Second Amendment.”
Joe LoPorto, the director of legal operations for New Jersey Firearms Owners Syndicate, took to social media to celebrate breaking a dozen. LoPorto was present at Tuesday’s meeting to support members who reside in the township.
“As of today, towns in seven counties have taken this initiative,” LoPorto wrote in a message in NJFOS’ private social media group. “With just the towns that have passed our resolution so far, we have eliminated approximately $130,000 per year in exorbitant, abusive, and unconstitutional permitting fees. Nearly 200,000 people in NJ now live in towns that are free of these restrictions!”
The permit-to-carry fee nullification movement in the Garden State has taken root. A near-real-time tracker of these efforts can be found over at News2A. New Jerseyans interested in bringing this fight to their town can download the policy brief and model resolution which is hosted at the New Jersey Firearms Owners Syndicate webpage HERE. Anyone starting to engage with their town, NJFOS requests they reach out to Joe LoPorto via email to discuss a strategy and for tracking purposes.
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