Buying a gun in NJ? What you need to do ... and should think about

WOODLAND PARK - So, you want to buy a gun.

Maybe you’ve always been interested in owning a firearm. Maybe this isn’t your first time buying, but your first time buying in New Jersey. Maybe the recent flood of news stories about gun rights and gun control — cue protesting high school students — kickstarted a rush to purchase.

In any case, you would be part of a familiar pattern.

Shortly after the Feb. 14 mass shooting at a Florida high school, gun sales in New Jersey and across the nation spiked, based on federal background check data, as buyers sought to get ahead of any new proposed firearms restrictions. The same rush to purchase replays itself after virtually every mass shooting — the litany from Aurora to Sandy Hook to San Bernardino.

"I didn't personally purchase (a gun after Parkland), but every time that restrictions get placed, or the threat of further restrictions get placed upon the law-abiding public, it creates a supply-and-demand issue," said David Rosenthal, the vice president of the Coalition of New Jersey Firearm Owners. "President Obama (who pushed unsuccessfully for more gun control) was the best gun salesman the United States of America has ever seen."

Background checks — a barometer of sales — in New Jersey totaled 10,198 in March, up from 8,010 and 8,499, respectively, in January and February. Nationwide, background checks topped 2.76 million in March, up from 2.03 million and 2.33 million, respectively, in January and February, according to FBI data.

The buying spasm follows a period of relative calm for gun sales, widely attributed to Donald Trump's White House win, with backing by the National Rifle Association. Nationwide, background checks fell to 25.2 million in 2017, Trump's first year in office, after topping 27.5 million in 2016, Obama's final year.

But politics aside, there are plenty of reasons why someone might want to buy a gun — legally: to guard what’s important, to use hunting, to shoot at a range for fun or competition, or simply to collect and admire, to hear gun enthusiasts tell it.

Still, it isn't a decision that should be taken lightly, because the consequences can literally be life or death, or serious injury.

What does it take to buy a gun in New Jersey? What are the practical considerations to take into account when buying? And if the gun is to be used for protection, gun control advocates ask, are there smarter, more practical alternatives to firearms? For example, might a big barking dog do the trick?

“The internet can only take you so far,” said Anthony Colandro, the founder and chief executive of Gun For Hire, a range that shares space with Ottomanelli’s Sporting Arms shop in Woodland Park. Watch the video above for Colandro's outline of the state's gun laws. The process prospective gun owners face is also outlined in the video below.

For those so inclined, he advises jumping right in.

“You need to touch and feel a gun; you have to see how it fits in your hand. And it’s great to try a gun.”

Hold a 9 mm Glock — it’s the most popular type of handgun Colandro said he sells — and feel its heft, its cold density. Take aim with a rifle built off the ArmaLite Rifle — AR — platform, and nestle the stock into the chest. Take aim at sheet of paper, suspended 20 feet in front of a shooting port.

Slowly, deliberately, hook an index finger around the trigger. Pull. Hear the bang, bang. Watch the fast-fading wisps of gray smoke. Listen for the tinkle of shell casings falling to the cement floor. Anyway, that's what it's like in this controlled environment.

“The best thing would be to make sure you get something you’re comfortable with,” said Rosenthal, from the Coalition of New Jersey Firearm Owners, a nonprofit he said spans New Jersey and counts around 1,000 members, in addition to volunteers.

“A lot of folks start out with things that are a little bit too powerful because they look shiny, and for the cosmetic appeal, but the reality of it is, they need to consider what they’re going to be using it for because it’s a tool,” Rosenthal said.

For many enthusiasts, the AR-15 — or semiautomatic rifles built off the AR platform, as the AR-15 is banned by name in New Jersey — are ideal for target shooting, or shooting in competition. Rosenthal added that for hunters, the AR-15 is good for shooting coyotes.

Among the general public, however, shooting coyotes isn't what comes to mind when talk turns to the AR-15.

In the Valentine's Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Florida authorities say 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz used an AR-15 to kill 17 people and wound 17 others. The killer's work was done in minutes.

The AR-15 also played a starring role in a host of other firearms massacres, including in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012; San Bernardino, California, in 2015; Orlando, Florida, in 2016; Las Vegas, 2017; Sutherland Springs, Texas, 2017, and elsewhere.

The weapon has turned up in so many mass shootings that Rolling Stone wrote: "All American Killer: How the AR-15 Became Mass Shooters' Weapon of Choice."

Gun advocates say the weapon isn't the problem.

“I’m obviously a pro-Second Amendment, pro-civil rights, pro-safety, pro-gun person … with 46 years of shooting experience,” said Rosenthal, who called the AR-15 an “evil … black rifle” in an apparent show of sarcasm.

“None of my guns ever shot anybody,” he said.

The shatter-proof glass door opens into Ottomanelli’s Sporting Arms.

With a dizzying array of shapes and earthy tones packed into one tight space, it’s like stepping into the huge end of a kaleidoscope that has none of the vibrant, psychedelic colors. But the shop has plenty of background noise.

About 100 feet away, even behind thick, transparent barriers and multiple heavy doors, the sound of shooters firing at different speeds is cacophonous elevator music for firearms shoppers.

“About 80 percent of rifle sales are the AR-style,” said Colandro, a longtime member of the NRA who owned a promotional advertising company before he opened Gun For Hire around five years ago in Woodland Park.

“About 80 percent of handgun sales are the Glock,” Colandro said, standing behind one of the glass counter-display cases that lines Ottomanelli’s sales floor. "Most people want to buy what the police or military use.”

Around 65 percent of law enforcement personnel in the United States have a Glock as their service weapon, according to Glock's website. Sales numbers for the AR-15 are not publicly available, but Rosenthal, from the Coalition of New Jersey Firearm Owners, said it is "the United States' most popular sporting rifle."

Ottomanelli's houses a dizzying array of firearms. Handguns, shotguns, rifles — of which there is the AR and Israeli style, among others. There are boxes upon boxes of ammunition, neatly stacked. The glass cases are filled with pistols and revolvers that, in comparison to the thick black and brown Glocks, Smith & Wessons, Sig Sauers and Berettas, look simply dainty.

About 300 to 700 people come into Ottomanelli’s each week to look at what’s for sale. Approximately 200 buy a firearm, Colandro said.

“We try to steer them to a firearm that best fits them,” Colandro said. “A lot of people will come in with the misconception from watching movies or video games that they want a big gun. They want something that might be too expensive, like a $4,000 Desert Eagle, and instead we’ll tell them they can get a Glock for $600 that has 9 mm ammunition. It’s affordable.”

Rosenthal recommends a Smith & Wesson for a handgun. A Smith & Wesson revolver was the very first gun he bought 40 years ago at Sayreville Sportsman, when he was just 18 years old. But, like Colandro, he also likes the 9 mm Glock, particularly for new firearm owners.

Apart from handguns, Rosenthal said AR-platform rifles are ideal for new shooters. He said he favors the Remington 870 or the Mossberg 500 — both pump-action firearms — for shotgun novices.

Pricing depends on what the customer wants, Rosenthal said.

“Generally speaking, you can get something decent, even used, in the $250 to $500 range,” Rosenthal said.

But he has a word of caution.

“If you go to a place and they start telling you what you need instead of trying to fit you, then you’re in the wrong place,” Rosenthal said.

To protect a home and those inside it, what’s most efficient: A gun, a guard dog, or keeping doors and windows locked?

The Rev. Robert Moore wants to know the answer to that question by way of studies and hard evidence.

“There does need to be more studies done. What makes you safe in your home?” Moore, the executive director of Princeton-based Coalition for Peace Action, said.

In addition to campaigns titled “Diplomacy, Not War” and “No Wars, No Warming,” the Coalition for Peace Action mounts a campaign called “Ceasefire NJ,” which pushes for more gun control.

Moore noted that he does not oppose the Second Amendment, or the right to keep and bear arms, or people who shoot for recreation.

But he is unnerved by the harrowing statistics on gun violence. He urges potential gun buyers to carefully consider their decision.

The raw numbers mask stories behind the losses.

There were 485 recorded gun deaths in New Jersey in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The total takes in all manner of calamity, including homicides, suicides and accidents.

Over the same period, Pennsylvania — with considerably looser firearm laws — recorded 1,555 gun deaths; firearms-strict New York recorded 900 gun deaths; and Delaware, also among the states with the tightest gun laws, clocked in at 111.

While federal law has long clamped down on firearms death research, a bevy of oft-cited reports make the same claim: states with the most gun laws, including New Jersey and New York, on average have the lowest firearms death rates.The death rates for neighboring states, per 100,000 people: New Jersey, 5.5; New York, 4.4; Delaware, 11; and Pennsylvania, 12.

More facts for those considering whether to buy: According to Annals of Internal Medicine 2014 research findings, gun ownership doubled the risk of homicide and tripled the risk of suicide in a home, which now accounts for about two-thirds of the 33,000 of U.S. firearms deaths each year.

“I know about the NRA mantra — that ‘The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,’” Moore said. “That only works in Wild West fantasies, most of the time.”

Niki VanAller, the assistant director of the Coalition for Peace Action, urges potential gun buyers to seriously consider anyone in their home who could pose a danger to themselves or others if a firearm is around.

Moore says safety risks can be mitigated by keeping firearms secured in a locked receptacle. For extra safety, he recommended storing the firearm and its ammunition in separate places.

Suicide prevention experts have long advocated the same thing — storing firearms and ammunition separately. They say it buys time for the person contemplating suicide, which very often is an impulsive act — made all the more lethal when a firearm is handy.

“Certainly, they (gun owners) have the right to have a gun for lawful purposes,” Moore said. It's just that the unintended consequences can be unforgiving.

How does someone buy a gun in New Jersey?

To start — visit your municipal police department or New Jersey State Police barracks and request the form for a Firearms Purchaser Identification Card.

“I have to fill out a whole background check. I have to get fingerprinted electronically. I have to list two references. I have to disclose my mental health and allow the county clerk to do a mental health background check on me,” said Colandro, the owner of Gun For Hire.

Prepare to answer if you’ve ever been convicted of domestic violence, or have a court order issued related to domestic violence. If you’ve ever committed a crime in New Jersey or another jurisdiction. If you’ve ever been a juvenile delinquent. If you’ve ever been convicted of a disorderly persons offense. If you suffer from a “physical defect or disease.” If you depend on alcohol or narcotics. If you’ve ever been confined, committed, attended, treated or beened observed for a mental or psychiatric condition.

All that history comes into play.

Spokesmen with the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General and the New Jersey State Police would not discuss what offenses would disqualify an applicant for approval in New Jersey, aside from the conditions set forth on the application for a Firearms Purchaser Identification Card.

According to FBI statistics, though, the vast majority of federal denials are because the would-be purchaser had been convicted of a crime punishable by a year or more or a misdemeanor punishable by more than two years.

Among other reasons for denial: being a fugitive from the law; a domestic violence conviction; a drug offense; a state prohibition; a restraining order; and an adjudicated mental health issue.

“The FBI, State Police and the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms), and the local police check my fingerprints, which takes a couple of weeks,” Colandro said. “I have to take a picture. My two references have to go back to the police department vouching for me.”

Once the application for the Firearms Purchaser Identification Card is completed and submitted back to the police, the approval process should be completed in 30 days, according to the application packet, but that’s not always the case if reference checks or background checks are delayed.

But once the state approves your application for a Firearms Purchaser ID, you can now legally buy a rifle, shotgun or pellet gun — that is, if you pass the National Instant Criminal Background Check at the firearms shop you visit.

As with New Jersey's application for a Firearms Purchase Identification Card, federal officials screen for criminal and mental health history, dishonorable military conduct and discharge, immigration status, reported domestic violence, substance use and open warrants.

Want a handgun in New Jersey? That’s another step. Fill out another application for handgun ownership, and provide another two references. If you get approved for that, act fast. You can only buy one handgun every 90 days. Some municipalities grant a 90-day extension, Colandro said, and other municipalities don’t.

“My town is not so bad with the pistol permits,” said Paul, 46, of Somerset County, who declined to provide his last name because of his job. “Usually, it takes within 30 days that they (the police) will issue the permits. I know some towns in New Jersey can take months and months.”

A gun owner in northern New Jersey who asked his name not be used — because he is a health professional and fears losing business if people find out about his gun hobby — said he bought his first gun around seven years ago.

"I have subsequently bought a number of other guns, and the process (to apply for handgun permits) does get easier with experience," he said.

At a gun store, Colandro said the customer provides their firearm ID card and driver’s license. The addresses on both the firearms ID and the license have to match. Then the customer fills out a federal form, and the firearm store employees starts a National Instant Background Check.

The chances of an ordinary civilian receiving a carry permit are slim. In 2017, 1,212 carry permits were granted to people in New Jersey, according to Guns to Carry, a website that collects information on each state’s gun laws.

Critics of the Garden State’s firearm laws note that they would have an easier time buying guns in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Montana or Wyoming — just a few of the many states that don’t require licensing, registration or permitting to own a gun. They have some of the highest firearms death rates in the nation.

“That’s how New Jersey works,” Colandro said.

Katie Park: @kathspark; 908-801-4853; kpark@gannettnj.com. Editor Herb Pinder contributed to this report.