Hi Blue Jays, It's not for hand guns. I'm looking at my "State of NJ Firearms Purchaser IDENTIFICATION CARD" right now and it reads as follows, "Is hereby granted permission to purchase and carry rifles and shotguns pursuant to provisions of NJS 2C:58-3 and 2C:39-5 with amendments and supplements."
The rest gives my complete physical description, social security number, address, etc.
You're probably right about trying to expedite things by making calls to state officials but I was the victim of a certain mind set that we had in NJ. I spoke to other firearms owners and they all said I'd be wasting my time because they'd all gone thru the hoops and were stonewalled by vast bureaucracies. Remember -- we're talking about local, state, and federal agencies. I was also told that if any bureaucrat in the vast, amorphous, impersonal, anonymous, Kafkaesque world thought I was being a pest -- I'd be deliberately ignored and put in limbo.
So I capitulated. But circumstances like that mean that all people who really need a firearm for self-defense or imminent danger are imperiled by the government. Thus, a government which is supposed to promote public safety actually does the opposite!
Talk about the law of unintended consequences!!
Wow, that is quite a story. The really sad part is that local police chiefs appear to have lots of power to "misplace" paperwork in order to cause massive delays. It almost would have been easier to ask a buddy in a friendlier jurisdiction to obtain the valid permit, purchase the firearm, and then subsequently sell it to you in a perfectly legal person-to-person transaction.
~ Blue Jays ~