PHILADELPHIA (October 8, 2025) – Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) today filed an urgent Petition for Rehearing En Banc in Koons v. Platkin, urging the full Third Circuit Court of Appeals to correct a deeply flawed 3-judge panel decision that greenlit New Jersey’s sweeping, unconstitutional scheme to nullify the right to carry in public.
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The panel’s September ruling upheld much of the ban, allowing New Jersey to maintain a vast patchwork of unsecured, so-called ‘gun-free zones.’ As the petition explains, this scheme “disarms only the law-abiding and leaves them at the mercy of those who cannot be deterred by a legal prohibition alone.”
FPC contends that the panel’s flawed methodology directly conflicts with the Third Circuit’s precedent in Lara v. Commissioner Pennsylvania State Police—a case FPC also litigated and won at the Third Circuit—showing the urgent need for the full court to restore coherence to Second Amendment law and reject reliance on late-19th-century sources.
Said FPC President Brandon Combs, “States cannot erase the right to carry by declaring everyday places off-limits, but that is exactly what New Jersey has done. Worse, the Third Circuit panel all but blessed the State’s unconstitutional scheme. The full Third Circuit Court of Appeals must correct this failure and faithfully apply both the Second Amendment and binding Supreme Court precedent.”
Individuals who want to support this lawsuit and FPC’s broader mission to dismantle unconstitutional gun control can join the FPC Grassroots Army at firearmspolicy.org/join.
The petition in Koons v. Platkin, along with other case documents, can be viewed at firearmspolicy.org/koons. FPC is joined in this lawsuit by four individual FPC members, along with the Second Amendment Foundation, Coalition of New Jersey Firearm Owners, and the New Jersey Second Amendment Society.
About Firearms Policy Coalition
Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) — a 501(c)(4) nonprofit membership organization — exists to create a world of maximal individual liberty, defend constitutional rights, and restore the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. FPC pursues these goals through strategic litigation, legal scholarship, amicus briefing, legislative and regulatory advocacy, grassroots activism, education, and outreach. FPC’s legal arm, FPC Law, is the nation’s leading initiative dedicated to restoring the right to keep and bear arms across the United States. To learn more about FPC’s lawsuits and pro–Second Amendment efforts, sign up for FPC news alerts at firearmspolicy.org and follow FPC on X, Instagram, and Facebook.
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