Speaking as a life long NJ resident of 61 years, with 45 years employed in the Armored Car industry, and 43 years with a valid NJ Carry Permit. Let me pop in with the following observations.
When I first got my permit in 1977 it did not have any restrictions listed on it. That all changed around 1982 when the state rewrote the statutes (more on that later). Since then I know of no permit issued to an Armored Car Employee that wasn't restricted to on duty only. In fact the northern counties were the worse in issuing restrictions. Some counties such as Essex they were listed on a separate 8.5 x 11 piece of paper. Popow vs Margate also had a significant impact on the restrictions Atlantic County placed on our permits.
I think I can speak with some authority on this subject since at one time I had 125 armed personnel under my supervision state wide. Currently I have 45. And have testified in front of the state legislature.And I work closely with the NJSP Firearms Division. Believe me they are sometimes as frustrated with the system as we are.
NJ Firearms statues are in need of a complete rewrite. Currently Chapter 39 outlines what you can't do. Which is practically everything under the sun. You need to go to Chapter 58 to find the exceptions. If you didn't know about chapter 58 you would think John Q Citizen couldn't own a firearm in this state. Chapter 39 and 58 need to be combined to make this simpler to understand for both the citizens as well as Law Enforcement.
Growing up in NJ firearms were not a big deal and I really can't say that the statutes were that burdensome. But after the 1982 rewrite the statutes and dealing with police have at times become an exercise in frustration and futility. Ones that for the most part I have learned how to live with in such a way as not to become to burdensome. I know for some of you that may be hard to believe. Depending on where you live some jurisdictions are quite easy to work with, others not so much. For example currently the township where I live is gun friendly. It routinely turns applications around in less than a week. Other jurisdictions push the limits and then some on the allowable time. Under the law they must complete your application in 30 days. I have seen it go a year. @TGS that was in Trenton which surprised me since they were always extremely timely in our dealing with them.
It took me a long time to adopt Critical Defense because even after I talked to the firearms unit and they assured me that it was OK; NO ONE could provide me this in writing. It was only after several years and every retired LEO in the state had been carrying it as confirmed by my FFL/Training/retired LEO friend that I broke down. Up until that point it was either lead or JSP's only. I was always afraid a prosecutor would say the law was intended to restrict expanding ammo and even in the NJSP's opinion polymer tipped ammo is designed to expand, thus the ammo is unlawful. As I discussed with TGS the prosecutor in this case may try to have the NJSP's opinion invalidated. Now I still see the guard in question getting off on the Hollow Point charge since he was operating under NJSP guidance but going forward the rest of us may be screwed. I believe the state's PBA and FOP will stand behind the NJSP's opinion since their retired members would be effected if it was reversed.
As long as the state keeps electing democratic leadership nothing is going to change. When Christie Whitman was elected and she was given a republican majority in the legislature we had hope much of this would change since she advertised herself as an avid shooter/sports woman. Unfortunately she got caught up in the whole police profiling scandal. That picture of her frisking a minority was the death stroke to her political aspirations. While Governor Crispy Cream was good for the gun owners of this state unfortunately he handled to many other things with a fat thumb and screwed up his carrier. Governor Murphy is a ticking time bomb for gun owners. He basically was voted in by both the free stuff brigades and those who were disgusted with Crispy.