New Jersey AG Sues Gun Store, PA Gun Show Promoter Under State’s Firearms Nuisance Law

Customers shop for firearms in the McBride Guns Inc. store in Austin, Texas, on Aug. 25, 2023. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin is suing a gun store and a gun show promoter under a recently adopted New Jersey law that allows his office to sue members of the gun industry he deems to be acting as a public nuisance.

Mr. Platkin filed a pair of lawsuits in New Jersey Superior Court on Dec. 12. The defendant in one case is a New Jersey firearm store called FSS Armory, Inc. The defendants in the other are a gun show event organizer called Eagle Shows and a firearms parts maker called JSD Supply, both of which are operated by the same proprietor.

Mr. Platkin derives justification for these two lawsuits through a law passed in New Jersey in July 2022 that authorizes the state’s attorney general to bring lawsuits against gun industry members that he deems contribute to unlawful or unreasonable conduct, or “knowingly or recklessly create, maintain, or contribute to a public nuisance in this State through the sale, manufacturing, importing, or marketing of a qualified product.”

Firearms industry members have challenged the New Jersey law, arguing that it conflicts with a federal law known as the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which protects firearms manufacturers and sellers from liability in most cases involving criminal misuse of their products by end users. The act allows liability to continue in cases stemming from malfunctioning products or in cases in which the seller had reason to believe the end user would use a product in a crime.

A three-judge panel on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld New Jersey’s firearms public nuisance law in August, dismissing a legal challenge by the National Shootings Sports Foundation, a firearm industry trade association.

Gun Store Left Weapons Unsecured: Lawsuit

The complaint against FSS Armory states that the gun store demonstrated recklessness, including by sharing images of unsecured firearms throughout the store on its website. The complaint states that FSS Armory also stored “stacks of guns” near a ground-floor window without securing either the window or the guns.

FSS Armory was burglarized in January. The complaint asserts that suspects had searched “gun stores in nj” online before the burglary and then made their way to FSS Armory, where they broke the glass at the first-floor window, reached into the store, and pulled out 20 firearms, including pistols, shotguns, rifles, and a revolver.

“The burglars promptly trafficked the guns,” Mr. Platkin’s lawsuit states. “Some have since been recovered in criminal investigations. Others have been used in crimes or recovered at active crime scenes. Most remain unaccounted for.”

The lawsuit says that despite the break-in, the store’s website continues to show photos that “broadcast the vulnerable condition of the store.”

The complaint describes the January break-in as a “foreseeable” consequence of unlawful firearm storage practices at the store.

“By failing to safeguard its guns as required by law, and by advertising that failure on the internet, FSS Armory facilitated criminals’ theft of twenty of those guns. FSS Armory thereby contributed to and perpetuated the public nuisance of illegal guns plaguing the State of New Jersey,” the lawsuit states.

“Until all of those guns are recovered, the State must bear the cost of fielding multiagency police responses and large-scale investigations—sometimes in collaboration with other jurisdictions—to identify perpetrators and locate missing gun inventory.”

NTD News reached out to FSS Armory about the lawsuit, but the gun store declined to comment.

Pennsylvania Gun Show Enables ‘Ghost Gun’ Sales Illegal in NJ: Lawsuit

Mr. Platkin’s complaint against Eagle Shows and JSD Supply primarily takes issue with the apparent interest the two Pennsylvania-based entities have demonstrated in facilitating sales of unfinished firearms and firearms parts kits to neighboring New Jersey.

New Jersey has passed legislation that regulates the sale of unfinished firearms parts kits. The state specifically imposes criminal penalties for purchasing unfinished components in order to finish making untraceable firearms, sometimes referred to as “ghost guns.” New Jersey laws allow only those manufacturers licensed or registered through the state to purchase unfinished firearms parts or parts kits.

According to the complaint, JSD Supply markets “ghost gun” kits that are easy to assemble.

“Thanks to our products, you can put together a firearm that is identical to options available straight from the manufacturer,” a description for a polymer firearm parts kit on JSD Supply’s website reads, adding that “they don’t require a background check or a serial number, making them the best solution when privacy is the main concern.”

The lawsuit further alleges that JSD Supply processes many of its sales in all-cash transactions, making them even more difficult to trace.

The lawsuit states that Eagle Shows and JSD Supply’s common owner, Jordan Vinroe, has deliberately worked to enable sales of these unfinished firearms parts kits to neighboring New Jersey residents.

“Defendant Eagle Shows’ hosts gun shows ... deliberately set up just across the New Jersey—Pennsylvania border, at which Defendant JSD and other Ghost Gun product vendors sell their products to New Jersey residents,” Mr. Platkin’s lawsuit states.

“Vinroe has stated publicly that the New Jersey market is a prime target for JSD’s sale of Ghost Gun kits, frames and other parts.”

NTD News reached out to Eagle Shows and JSD Supply for comment on the case but didn’t receive a response by press time.

From NTD News