On November 13, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced that his office had filed civil lawsuits against two gun stores — Butch’s Gun World and Point Blank Guns and Ammo — for allegedly selling AR-15 ammunition and handgun magazines to undercover buyers without verifying that they could legally possess them. According to the announcement, the gun dealers “did not ask to see any type of identification, permit, or credential” or “take any apparent steps to exclude sales” to those prohibited from owning firearms, including minors and people with felony convictions.
During a press conference on November 13, 2024, Ravi Ramanathan, director of New Jersey’s Statewide Affirmative Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) Office, explained that a state public-nuisance law enacted in 2022 requires gun makers and dealers to establish “reasonable procedures, safeguards, and business practices that are designed to prevent the sale or distribution of gun-related products to a person prohibited from possessing a firearm under state or federal law.”
Last December, the New Jersey attorney general filed two other civil lawsuits under that public-nuisance law after SAFE Office investigations: one against ghost gun sellers, and another against a gun dealer that allegedly failed to secure its inventory and prevent theft.
UNDERCOVER AR-15 AMMO Buys
The complaint against Butch’s Gun World alleges that the Vineland, New Jersey, retailer sold 20 rounds of .223 Remington ammunition — the most common AR-15 caliber — and a Walther pistol magazine to an undercover investigator posing as a first-time customer in March 2024, and 1,000 rounds of .223 Remington to another investigator in June 2024. Both customers paid in cash. But according to the lawsuit, for each transaction, salespeople never asked for the customer’s identification, a carry permit, or other documentation, or “take any measures to ensure that the purchaser was not a person prohibited from possessing a firearm.”
Similarly, the complaint against Point Blank Guns and Ammo of East Hanover, New Jersey, alleges that the dealer sold a Glock pistol magazine and 1,000 rounds of .223 Remington ammunition to two undercover investigators for cash in March and May 2024, respectively, without asking for identification or verifying that they could possess the items.
“In other words, these stores had no idea who they were selling 1,000 rounds of AR-15 ammunition to,” Ramanathan said during the press conference. “Those sales practices are irresponsible and can lead to the next mass shooting.”
Earlier this year, an Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund investigation revealed that several major online ammunition retailers did not appear to verify their customers’ ages by asking for identification, for example, before selling them AR-15 ammunition.
HOLDING BAD ACTORS ACCOUNTABLE
During the press conference, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin applauded the SAFE Office, which he called the “first of its kind in the country” dedicated to holding “bad actors in the firearms industry accountable.” Platkin explained that he launched the state-funded SAFE Office in 2022 following the signing of a series of gun safety measures, including the public-nuisance law described above.
Platkin called the SAFE Office “a critical component of a public safety strategy,” which includes treating gun violence like a public health crisis. He said that the effort has resulted in “the lowest level of gun violence in New Jersey history.”
“That’s why I’ve been so passionate about using the tools that the legislature and the governor have provided to my office to hold the firearms industry accountable when they violate our laws — just like we do with literally every other industry,” Platkin said.