New Jersey Just Made a Bat for Self-Defense a Felony. ANJRPC Sued.

The complaint is dated September 21, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, Civil Action No. 26-cv-12401. Plaintiffs: Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs, Inc.; Knife Rights, Inc.; Wendy Copenhaver; Wayne Viden; Walter Everard, Jr.; and Salvatore Marsilla. Defendants, in their official capacities: Attorney General Jennifer Davenport and Acting Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police Jeanne Hengemuhle. Daniel L. Schmutter of Hartman & Winnicki, P.C., signed it.

The statute is N.J.S. 2C:39-5(d): possession of “any other weapon” “under circumstances not manifestly appropriate for such lawful uses as it may have” is a crime of the fourth degree. “Weapon,” under 2C:39-1(r), is “anything readily capable of lethal use or of inflicting serious bodily injury.” The complaint’s list is ordinary: a baseball bat, a stick, a knife, scissors, a kubaton on a keychain. Self-defense is not a “lawful use.” The New Jersey Supreme Court said so in State v. Kelly, 118 N.J. 370 (1990): a single mother who carried a carpet cutter because she expected her ex-boyfriend, then used it when he beat her, was still a felon for the possession. Anticipatory self-defense “does not excuse the possession.” The only carve-outs the complaint names are a Permit to Carry a Handgun and one pocket-sized chemical spray of not more than three-quarters of an ounce under 2C:39-6(i)(1). After Bruen, the filing says, New Jersey “now only allows using the most force possible in self-defense.” Less force than a handgun is the crime.

The complaint also hits the per se bans in 2C:39-3(e) and 2C:39-9(d): gravity knives, switchblades, dirks, daggers, stilettos, billies, blackjacks, metal knuckles, slingshots. “Explainable lawful purpose” does not include self-defense. Copenhaver holds an FPIC, works a licensed dealer counter, and carries one legal spray. She will not apply for a carry permit. She wants a spare can and a larger can. Viden, Everard, and Marsilla already hold carry permits and still will not carry a collapsible baton, a double-edge, a switchblade, or bear spray. This is not a gun ban. It is a ban on every other arm the Second Amendment still names.