New Jersey’s ghost gun law was enacted in 2018 and further strengthened in 2019. (New Jersey also adopted legislation in 2022 to increase the penalties for various violations of the ghost gun law).¹ New Jersey’s law:

• Makes it unlawful for a person who is not registered or licensed to manufacture firearms to purchase or obtain an unserialized² frame or receiver or any combination of parts “from which a firearm without a serial number may be readily manufactured or otherwise assembled[.]”³ (For these purposes, the definition of “frame or receiver” also includes some unfinished frames and receivers, including “any object or part which is not a firearm frame or receiver in finished form but is designed or intended to be used for that purpose and which may readily be made into a firearm frame or receiver through milling or other means.”)⁴
• Prohibits using a 3D printer to produce a firearm or firearm components, including a receiver or magazine, unless the acquirer is registered or licensed by the state as a firearm manufacturer or dealer.⁵
• Prohibits the distribution of computer code capable of manufacturing firearms and firearm components using a 3D printer to anyone but a manufacturer licensed under state law.⁶
• Expands the federal prohibition on undetectable firearms, requiring that the major components of a firearm must be detectable by security screening devices.⁷ This law makes it unlawful to manufacture, cause to be manufactured, transport, ship, sell, or dispose of any covert or undetectable firearm.⁸

In 2019, New Jersey strengthened its ghost gun law by making it unlawful to knowingly possess, transfer, ship, sell, or dispose of, a firearm that was manufactured or otherwise assembled using a firearm frame or firearm that is not imprinted with a serial number registered with a federally licensed manufacturer.⁹

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1. See 2022 NJ SB 2846, increasing penalties for various violations of ghost gun law from a crime of the third degree to a crime of the second degree.[↩]
2. A “frame or receiver which is not imprinted with a serial number registered with a federally licensed manufacturer”.[↩]
3. N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2C:39-9(k).[↩]
4. N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2C:39-9(k).[↩]
5. N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2C:39-9(l)(1).[↩]
6. N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2C:39-9(l)(2).[↩]
7. N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2C:39-1(ii); id. § 2C:39-9(m).[↩]
8. N.J. Stat. Ann. §§ 2C:39-9(m); 2C:39-1.[↩]
9. N.J. Stat. Ann. §§ 2C:39-3(n); 2C:39-9(n).[↩]