The state's Oct. 1 petition asks the justices to wait for Illinois and Connecticut rifle cases they hear Dec. 2, and the question in those cases does not mention magazines.
New Jersey gun owners can still face prison for keeping an AR-15-style rifle or a magazine over 10 rounds, though the Third Circuit found both bans unconstitutional July 17, and the state has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to wait.
On Dec. 2, the justices hear two challenges to bans on AR-15-style rifles, one from Cook County, Ill., and one from Connecticut.
New Jersey's petition, dated Oct. 1, asks them to keep its own appeal on hold until they rule in those cases. At that point, the state wrote, the court should, "if appropriate," set aside the Third Circuit's decision and let that court reconsider the case in light of the ruling.
An Aug. 4 order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit keeps its ruling on hold while the Supreme Court considers the petition, and through a final decision if the justices take the case.
That leaves the law in force for gun owners, for the 386 firearms dealers listed in the New Jersey State Police's 2025 annual report and for the officers who enforce it.
A denial now, New Jersey argued, "would lead to a 'flood of currently restricted weapons entering' the State that are 'near-impossible to retrieve once within the state,' even if this Court ultimately upholds restrictions on assault weapons." The phrases inside that passage come from a 2025 ruling by another federal appeals court.
The Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, which brought the lead case, described the state's aims differently. New Jersey "is seeking to directly delay implementation of the Third Circuit's July 17 ruling for as long as possible," the group wrote July 31, when the state asked for the stay.
Scott Bach, the association's executive director, said NJBallot's questions about the petition called for legal strategy that the group could not disclose in advance.
"As our filing in the U.S. Supreme Court makes clear, we will continue to defend New Jersey's commonsense firearm safety laws in court," the Attorney General's office said in an Oct. 9 statement to NJBallot.
The full Third Circuit ruled 10-5 on July 17 that the state's assault-firearm law is unconstitutional for semi-automatic rifles, and it struck the magazine limit.
The appeals court ruled after the justices had agreed to hear the Illinois and Connecticut cases. In a footnote, the majority said its ruling settled a magazine question the justices had not committed to address.
It added that "no party to these long-pending cases has asked us to hold our decision pending the Supreme Court's decision."
In a July 1 letter, New Jersey had told the court that the Supreme Court "appears to be holding a number of petitions" over similar laws.
Judge Montgomery-Reeves joined the majority but would have held the case until the justices ruled.
"But nothing dictates that we issue our opinion now," she wrote, adding that once the justices decide the Illinois and Connecticut cases, "they will carry the day."
Existing law still governs rifles and magazines until the justices act
Having an assault firearm is a second-degree crime under state law unless the owner licensed it, registered it or rendered it inoperable. The charge carries five to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $150,000, and under the Graves Act the sentence must include at least 42 months with no possibility of parole.
Unless an exception applies, a magazine that holds more than 10 rounds brings a fourth-degree charge, with up to 18 months and a fine of up to $10,000.
The State Police website still says a rifle with the features it lists "is an 'assault firearm' and may only be possessed by a licensed firearms dealer, active-duty law enforcement officers and active-duty military personnel."
The law also spares people who turn the items in. It bars a possession conviction for anyone who gives written notice and then voluntarily surrenders a covered gun or magazine to the State Police superintendent or the police chief in the town where they live. The notice must arrive before anyone files charges or a complaint over the possession, and before any law enforcement agency opens an investigation into it.
In its July 31 request for the stay, the state told the court that sales appeared to start within hours of the July 17 opinion. It cited social media posts that it said showed three New Jersey dealers selling magazines over the 10-round limit before the ruling took effect.
Without a stay, the filing warned, "thousands (or more) of such sales could take place in the State, a bell state and local law enforcement could not soon un-ring."
Turning to what a stay would cost the gun owners, the state wrote that if they prevail, "the harm is entirely a months-long delay." The motion went on: "The State in no way intends to disregard or diminish any delay in exercising one's rights."
Online, the State Police firearms FAQ, last reviewed Dec. 17, 2025, still makes no mention of the July ruling or the stay.
The Attorney General's office announced the stay in an Aug. 4 statement that said it keeps the law in place while the petition moves forward. Neither that office nor the State Police had posted guidance for gun owners, dealers or police on the ruling or the stay as of Oct. 13.
The Dec. 2 cases ask about rifles, not magazines
The question the justices agreed to decide is whether the Second and Fourteenth Amendments "guarantee the right to possess AR-15 platform and similar semiautomatic rifles." It does not mention magazines.
New Jersey argues that a rifle ruling will likely clarify the legal test for magazine limits as well, and it asks that its magazine dispute then return to the lower courts.
In a September brief, the rifle association and other gun-rights groups asked the Supreme Court to "include in its ruling a discussion of magazines," pointing to New Jersey's case.
The U.S. Justice Department has sided with the gun owners in the Dec. 2 cases. "Connecticut's and Cook County's categorical bans on AR-15 rifles violate the Second Amendment," its brief says.
The brief cites the Third Circuit's New Jersey ruling as holding that a state may not ban those rifles.
Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action want the bans upheld. "As the Supreme Court considers these critical cases, we urge the Justices to put public safety ahead of gun industry greed," Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action, said Oct. 1.
The State Police collects the records that track these weapons
Any police agency that first investigates an assault-firearm case must report it to the State Police, according to 2013 State Police reporting instructions.
The State Police does not post a tally of the assault-firearm reports that police agencies send it.
Neither the State Police nor the Attorney General's office publishes a count of charges or convictions under the rifle or magazine provision.
How many owners give up banned magazines has been an open question before. In December 2018, after the magazine change, State Police Sgt. Jeff Flynn said the agency had received "zero" of the magazines. Leland Moore, an Attorney General's office spokesman, said of surrenders to local police, "That's not something we track."
Those statements came years before the July ruling, and neither agency has posted figures since.
Lawmakers filed bills pointing both ways, and none has had a hearing
Assemblyman Michael Venezia (34th District) and Sen. John McKeon (27th), both Democrats, introduced companion bills in January to broaden what counts as an assault weapon. The bills would cover "rifles with detachable magazines and one military style feature," along with similar shotguns and pistols, according to the bill statement.
Sen. Parker Space and Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, both Republicans from the 24th District, filed companion bills in March and May that go the other way. Their bills would lift the state's limit on magazine capacity, the bill statement says.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill said in July that the state should keep pursuing new gun laws even if they risk another legal loss. "When it comes to protecting our kids, yeah, I'm going to keep testing the courts, because this is wrong," she said.
Assemblyman Brian Bergen (R, 26th) took the opposite view of the governor's call for new gun laws in July. "The ruling happened, it's the ruling. They can challenge it. But what I don't want to see them do is throw all kinds of bills against the wall to see what sticks," he said.
No committee had held a hearing on those bills as of Oct. 13, and no lawmaker has introduced a bill on assault firearms or magazines since the July ruling, the Legislature's records show.
Briefs from Cook County and Connecticut officials, who are defending the bans, are due by Oct. 21.
The gun owners' response to New Jersey's petition is due Nov. 4, according to the Supreme Court's docket, and the justices hear the rifle cases Dec. 2. Until the court acts on New Jersey's petition, the rifle ban and the magazine limit remain the law.
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Photo: Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress