New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli has mixed views on guns

Amid rising gun violence, 2025 New Jersey Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli’s views on the subject are a mixed bag.

In recent years, polling has suggested gun violence is an important issue for New Jerseyans. A 2022 poll from Rutgers showed 72% of New Jersey residents were “very concerned” about the level of gun violence in the United States, and 59% believed gun laws should be stricter. There had been more than 300 mass shootings in the United States this year as of the beginning of September.

Ciattarelli’s campaign website describes him as a defender of gun rights who will “revisit and reform/repeal any law that violates an individual’s right to due process, and grandfather in any firearm that was legally purchased, but that is deemed illegal in subsequent legislation.”

His past statements on gun safety, however, haven’t always been that cut-and-dry.

In a 2019 piece in TAPinto Livingston, Ciattarelli said that Congress should consider enacting universal background checks and “reasonable” red flag laws and closing the loophole that allows gun purchases at gun shows with no background check requirements.

“No amount of new gun laws will ever properly address the mental health crisis we face here in the United States. That said, there’s room for sensible gun legislation that provides greater security in the community while protecting the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens,” Ciattarelli said.

The former member of the New Jersey General Assembly also suggested adjusting New Jersey’s firearm permitting rules to require renewals.

“In New Jersey, once obtained, the permit is good indefinitely,” he said. “Having to renew the permit every three to five years, including all the prerequisite background checks, is a reasonable and, considering the mental health crisis, necessary reform.”

By the time of his unsuccessful campaign for governor in 2021, Ciattarelli was more critical of gun safety legislation, even while maintaining the core of his earlier views.

In an interview with John Petrolino, a firearms advocate, on the right-wing blog Save New Jersey in May 2021, he was asked, “Would you be committed to signing a law that would lessen the restrictions to concealed carry?” He responded: “I certainly would be open to not making it as difficult as it is. Right now it seems next to impossible for anyone to receive a concealed carry license.”

Asked about laws restricting the transportation of firearms, Ciattarelli said: “In a number of different ways it appears that our gun laws have gone too far here in New Jersey. … There is also the famous story of the woman [Shaneen Allen] who had her gun stored properly when she left her home state, but when was traveling through New Jersey was pulled over for a traffic violation, volunteered the information that she had a firearm in the car and it was not stored consistent with New Jersey law. We ended up arresting that woman. To most people that seems terribly unreasonable and something that needs correcting.”

Asked about red flag laws that allow the removal of guns from individuals judged to pose a threat to themselves or others, Ciattarelli said they could violate due process rights.

“We’re confiscating private property and we’re denying them due process and I do think some of our red flag laws have gone too far in regards to that,” he said. “I think what we need to do if there are going to be red flag laws, and I don’t think we necessarily need anymore in New Jersey, in fact we may already have too many, but when we do have red flag laws, there needs to be a severe penalty for those who are calling local police and the case is found to be unwarranted or frivolous, there ought to be a penalty for those ill-intentioned people.”

During his 2025 campaign, Ciattarelli has made a point of contrasting his positions on guns with those of New Jersey Democrats, telling Petrolino on his “The Pen Patriot” podcast that while he is not a “gun guy,” other family members are, and he is a supporter of the Second Amendment.

“As I always don’t like to say, if it was up to Phil Murphy, he would repeal the Second Amendment,” Ciattarelli said. “But the Second Amendment is the Second Amendment. People have a right to bear arms, they have a right to defend themselves.”

Ciattarelli’s views on gun safety contrast notably with those of Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill, his opponent in the 2025 race for the governor’s office. On her campaign website, Sherrill describes herself as a defender of New Jersey’s gun safety laws.

“As a mom of four, I know the toll that the threat of gun violence continues to have on our kids and our communities,” she says. “New Jersey has the seventh strongest gun laws in the nation and as a direct result of these policies, we have the fourth-lowest firearm death rate. I am committed to building on this success by expanding law enforcement efforts to take illegal guns off of our streets, preventing violent criminals from legally purchasing firearms, and enhancing requirements for the safe storage of firearms particularly in places where children are present.”

Last year in Congress, Sherrill introduced the Secure Storage Information Act, a bill that she said would give Americans the tools they needed to safely store weapons at home, through both expanded information and improved access to storage devices. The intended goal of the bill was to prevent shooting deaths and accidental firearm injuries.

While the bill did not pass, Sherrill reintroduced it in Congress earlier this year.

She also has the endorsement of gun violence prevention group Everytown for Gun Safety, which described Sherrill as “a champion for gun violence prevention.”