A New Jersey court has upheld the denial of a gun permit to a man who admitted he’s an alcoholic, even though he says he hasn’t had a drink in 30 years. 

According to the appellate court, the East Brunswick Police Department was right in rejecting the man’s application after he checked the box indicating he was an alcoholic. According to MyCentralJersey.com, the man’s run-ins with the law more than 30 years ago also led to their decision to deny the permit application. 

The East Brunswick Police Department’s background check also revealed an eight-day period in 1992 when he was reported to the police three times, according to court papers.

All three reports involved domestic incidents with heavy drinking and suicidal threats leading him to be checked into a hospital, according to court papers.

He applied for a gun license in February 2022 but was denied because of the three incidents along with his admission that he is an alcoholic. According to state law, alcoholics are unable to obtain a gun permit unless they obtain a certificate from a state-licensed medical doctor, treatment provider, psychiatrist or provide “other satisfactory proof” affirming the severity of that alcoholism won’t affect the handling of a firearm.

His first appeal was rejected in Middlesex County Superior Court in 2023, leading to the appeal to the appellate court.

The man contested that his 31 years of sobriety is “satisfactory proof” that he could handle a firearm safely, but admitted alcoholism is “a lifelong disease that could not be cured but only controlled,” court papers say.

He also claimed he was only an alcoholic “for AA purposes” because he is required to admit it, but he failed to show proof of consistently attending AA meetings or to present testimony from his sponsor whom he claims he talks to once a month, according to court papers.

What would have happened if the applicant simply lied on his application form and said he wasn’t an alcoholic? Would that eight-day period in 1992 have been enough for the East Brunswick police to reject his gun permit application? 

And what kind of actual reassurance could a doctor give the East Brunswick police about the applicant’s suitability? If the applicant was still drinking to excess on a regular basis there might be signs of that in his liver and kidney functions, but if he’s only occasionally imbibing it would be virtually impossible for a doctor to pick up on that during routine medical screening. 

It’s an open question as to whether or not the provision in question is even constitutional, though it also doesn’t sound like the applicant raise a specific Second Amendment challenge to his denial. Several judges across the country, including a three-judge panel on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, have concluded that while there is a national tradition of prohibiting people from possessing firearms while they’re intoxicated, that tradition doesn’t go so far as to prohibit anyone who imbibes from owning a gun or exercising their Second Amendment rights. And while federal law bars “unlawful” users of drugs from possessing a gun, it does not prohibit alcohol users (or even abusers) from purchasing or possessing a firearm. 

Before this applicant files an appeal with the New Jersey Supreme Court, I hope he reaches out to a firearms attorney in the Garden State like Evan Nappen or Daniel Schmutter. This would-be gun owner may have a decent argument to make, but he’d be much better off being represented by someone who knows the intricacies of New Jersey gun law and the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment jurisprudence instead of going it alone, which is what sounds like has been the case up to this point.