Gun permits skyrocket during COVID pandemic
Township residents invoked their constitutional right to bear arms in dramatic fashion last year as Hamilton Police responded to lesser calls for service and made fewer arrests amid the COVID-19 pandemic, data show.
The Hamilton Police Division’s preliminary 2020 annual report confirms the department incurred a massive processing backlog as it received at least 2,560 firearms applications that year, a 250 percent increase from 2019.
Township resident Joseph Bianco publicly complained at several Hamilton Council meetings last year about Hamilton’s firearm permits taking too long to be processed, according to meeting minutes.
“To me, it seems like a very convenient way to carry out a political agenda, if there was one,” he said at the meeting of July 21, 2020, where he described New Jersey’s gun permit application laws as “unconstitutional.”
Residents seeking a firearms identification card or permit to purchase a handgun must pay a modest fee to undergo a background investigation.
The Garden State over the last year has realized an approximate 284 percent increase in firearms applications compared to the annual average over the last 10 years, according to the New Jersey State Police.
“This unprecedented surge in applications may be attributed to the continued public health emergency, civil unrest, and political uncertainty throughout the country,” authorities said in a message posted on the state’s Firearms Application and Registration System website. “Regardless, the New Jersey State Police, as well as Municipal Law Enforcement agencies throughout the state, continue to work diligently to process every application in a timely manner.”
The Hamilton Police Division 2020 annual report shows the township made fewer arrests and responded to fewer calls for service last year. The report is marked as preliminary because it’s based upon data from the first 11 months of 2020 as opposed to all 12 months of the year.
Hamilton’s Firearms Unit received at least 2,560 firearms applications in 2020 and completed 1,332 of those applications, denying 35, the report shows. The unit in 2019 received and completed 729 firearms applications, denying 21.
The Identification Unit conducted 1,083 firearms permit background investigations last year compared with 783 in 2019, according to the police division’s 2020 report.
The data prove Hamiltonians at large had greater interest in buying and bearing arms during the COVID-19 pandemic, which rocked New Jersey’s economy last spring as Gov. Phil Murphy implemented and enforced strict lockdown orders.
2020 also coincided with nationwide civil unrest following the police-involved homicide of Black man George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Trenton experienced “a large civil disturbance” on May 31, 2020, and Hamilton Police at that time gathered intelligence that “large scale looting and civil disobedience was being planned to occur at retail establishments in Hamilton,” according to the division’s annual report.
Hamilton Police “properly deployed” its resources at that time, “which prevented virtually any of the serious issues seen occurring in the City of Trenton and around the nation,” the department states in its 2020 preliminary report.
Hamilton Police arrested at least 1,630 adults and 63 juveniles last year. The police force in 2019 arrested 3,177 adults and 122 juveniles, data show.
In terms of traffic enforcement, the police division issued at least 3,869 total summonses in 2020 compared with more than 10,000 in 2019.
Hamilton Police administered at least 44 naloxone deployments in 2020 compared with 33 in 2019, suggesting the opioid abuse epidemic may have intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Without disclosing identities, Hamilton Police reports one township cop was suspended for 10 days last year for being absent without leave and failing to notify the division of involvement in a motor vehicle accident, while another officer was suspended for 180 days for conduct unbecoming a public employee for misusing his police vehicle for personal endeavors.