New Jersey concedes that state stun gun ban violates the Second Amendment

Steve Tuttle, director of communications for Taser International, Inc., holds the X26c stun gun on Nov. 24, 2004, at the company's headquarters in Scottsdale, Ariz. (Tom Hood/Associated Press)

Last week, the New Jersey attorney general conceded that the New Jersey stun gun ban violates the Second Amendment (see the filing in State v. Lambert, N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. no. A-1996-15T5). This comes in the wake of D.C.'s apparently likely plans to repeal the D.C. stun gun ban, and the other recent repeals (or conclusions of unconstitutionality) in Wisconsin, Michigan, the Virgin Islands, Overland Park (Kansas), and Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County and Harford County (all in Maryland).

Recall that this spring's Supreme Court decision in Caetano v. Massachusetts rejected some of the arguments for excluding stun guns from Second Amendment protection, but didn't definitely decide whether other arguments might carry the day. Stun gun bans remain in effect in Hawaii; Massachusetts; New York; Rhode Island; Annapolis, Md.; Baltimore; New Orleans; Philadelphia; Tacoma, Wash.; Wilmington, Del.; and Howard County, Md., plus some smaller towns. They are also heavily regulated (e.g., with total bans on carrying in most places outside the home) in some other places.