Attorneys for the state of New Jersey may have made a significant error while trying to fend off a Second Amendment challenge to the state’s ban on civilian possession of hollow-point ammunition in most circumstances.
The state prohibited civilians from carrying the rounds, which are almost universally used by law enforcement, in public as part of a 1978 overhaul of its criminal code, the only state to maintain such a restriction. In a lawsuit filed in February 2025 by Gun Owners of America (GOA) and other pro-Second Amendment organizations on behalf of Heidi Bergmann-Schoch in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, the groups sought to have that prohibition thrown out as a violation of the Second Amendment.
“New Jersey must show a broad and enduring historical tradition, circa 1791, denying Americans’ right to carry a firearm, loaded with ammunition used by all other Americans in other states, outside the home for self-defense,” the initial complaint said. “Because New Jersey cannot make such a showing, the challenged restrictions violate the Second Amendment.”
“By invoking the international law of war and the practices of the U.S. military, Defendants hoist themselves with their own petard,” a reply brief filed Thursday adds. “Defendants’ sources prove that HPBs do not cause ‘unnecessary suffering,’ nor are they restricted for use in warfare. Rather, HPBs were originally developed for hunting, and are widely used by military and police units, and tens of millions of American citizens – nationwide.”
Hollow-point ammunition has been widely used by law enforcement and civilians for personal protection and other lawful purposes for decades. In a 1994 video interview, Massad Ayoob, a police officer who was an expert witness in the use of lethal force in self-defense, explained why hollow-point rounds were preferred for personal protection.
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“I think the history both of military battle and police gunfight shows us that hard ball round that is, jacketed round nose, for jacketed round nose round, the nine-millimeter is justly infamous as an impotent man stopper and the .45 [ACP] is justly famous as, eh, being a pretty good man stopper,” Ayoob said in the interview, going on to note that both rounds tended to “perforate” – that is to exit the body of the target and potentially harm bystanders.
The United States Concealed Carry Association (USCCA) notes the overwhelming popularity of hollow–point rounds for lawful purposes, also noting the risk of overpenetration. In the 1994 interview, Ayoob noted multiple instances where rounds that went through a target killed or injured bystanders and even other law enforcement personnel.
“The first rule you learn when you ever go to a range is backstop. You never unleash the bullet unless you know where it’s going to stop,” Ayoob said. “None of those people who watch your videotapes would ever go to a shooting range that had a sign up and said do not shoot armor-piercing ammo, it will go through the backstop and then fire the armor-piercing ammo.”
“What possesses them to go on the street with the only safe backstop is the body of the offender and innocent people have to be presumed to be walking behind him and use a bullet designed to penetrate 18 inches of solid flesh, I must profoundly disagree with,” Ayoob continued.
Ayoob, who is president of the Second Amendment Foundation, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
New Jersey, whose restrictions on firearms receive high marks from anti-Second Amendment organizations like Everytown and Giffords, responded in April to a March motion for summary judgment from the pro-Second Amendment groups, defending the ban.
“Plaintiffs do not claim New Jersey’s restriction on the use of hollow point ammunition has prevented them from bearing fully functional firearms to exercise their lawful right to self-defense,” the state argued. “They claim only that their preference to use ammunition so lethal that it has been banned under international laws of war is protected by the Second Amendment.”
In a reply brief filed Thursday, attorneys for GOA and Bergmann-Schoch noted that New Jersey’s arguments were self-defeating, and that in testimony, it came out that the New Jersey State Police had its officers carry hollow-point ammunition (abbreviated as HPBs in the brief).
“Of course, Defendants’ own witness testified that the New Jersey State Police carry hollow point ammunition precisely for the benefits it offers over full metal jacket ammunition,” the reply brief says at one point. “Indeed, Defendants’ tenuous claim that HPBs have ‘no bearing’ on self-defense is eviscerated by the reality that virtually everyone who carries a handgun for self-defense in this country loads it with HPBs.”
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office declined to comment when contacted by the DCNF.
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