That’s what happened in New Jersey to M.S. M.S. and his wife accused each other in 1997 of domestic violence, and eventually agreed to the entry of civil restraining orders against each other. Pursuant to New Jersey law, the state seized M.S.’s five handguns, and started forfeiture proceedings. Though the criminal complaints against M.S. stemming from his wife’s charges were dismissed, the plaintiff and the prosecutor agreed to settle the forfeiture complaint by “allowing plaintiff ‘the opportunity to sell’ the five handguns ‘to a registered dealer of firearms.'”
There was never any finding, by a criminal court or by the family court, of any misconduct on M.S.’s part, nor any admission by M.S. of such misconduct for purposes of the settlement. In fact, for whatever it’s worth, the family court awarded M.S. custody of the couple’s five children, and eventually dissolved all the restraining orders.
But now M.S. has a problem: In 2004, New Jersey enacted a statute, N.J. Stats. § 2C:58-3(c)(8), that outlaw the transfer of guns “[t]o any person whose firearm is seized pursuant to the ‘Prevention of Domestic Violence Act of 1991’ and whose firearm has not been returned.” M.S. would like the right to get a gun, but his firearm was indeed seized because of his ex-wife’s complaint (which didn’t lead to any criminal or civil finding of guilt on M.S.’s part), and the firearm was indeed never returned — M.S. settled the forfeiture proceeding, with no admission of guilt, by arranging for the guns to be sold.
The state’s view was indeed that M.S. is now barred from all possession of firearms, notwithstanding the absence of any finding of misconduct on his part. And a New Jersey appellate court agreed with the state.
I can report, though, that last week the New Jersey Supreme Court reversed the appellate court’s decision, and held that § 2C:58-3(c)(8) applies only when “the bar to the issuance of a firearms card be due to some fault of plaintiff,” such as a finding that the plaintiff had indeed done something bad. Here are the key passages:
Although our starting point is to