It's been nearly two years since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling made it easier for people around the country to carry guns in public.

And state officials say New Jersey is already feeling those effects.

That ruling, known as the Bruen decision, said Americans have a right to carry a firearm outside the home for self-defense purposes, undercutting laws in states like New Jersey that required a person to show a justifiable need.

Since then, we've learned tens of thousands of people in the Garden State have taken advantage.

Ted Goldberg reports.

Since the Bruen decision, state data says more than 30,000 New Jerseyans have applied for a concealed carry permit.

We actually thought the numbers would be higher.

You know, you have, what, in excess of 8 million people in the state in New Jersey.

And the estimates over a million, you know, gun owners.

RTSP has trained 5000 of them that there are two locations.

Co-owner Rick Freedman says training for a concealed carry permit is much different than just shooting at a range.

We want people to get proficient in the actual drawing of the firearm, how you're going to engage a target.

Then we bring them on the range for their actual qualification and we have to deem them proficient.

And that's everything.

That's not just the rounds on the paper.

That's how they draw, how they go in and out of the holster and how safe they are.

Before the Bruen decision, New Jerseyans had to meet the legal standard of a justified viable needs a concealed carry.

You can see the difference in concealed carry applications in the 20 months pre Bruen and post Bruen in New Jersey, about 1100 versus 33,000.

That has gun control advocates afraid of what might happen next.

We know that that's something that's not going to make people safer.

But the gun industry has been pushing the message that it will.

David Pucino is the legal director and deputy chief counsel for the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

He's worried that more guns in public will lead to more crime.

Interpersonal conflicts that might have been either angry words or maybe a fist fight will escalate into fatal violence.

We know that that will happen more.

We know that people who are carrying guns are more likely to seek out or find them in such cells in situations where more violence results.

Firearm access rates go up in New Jersey, just as you seen universally across all other instances.

Gun violence rates should go up as well.

And that's not me saying firearms are bad, but it same where there's more firearms, there's more gun violence.

Mike Anestis leads the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers.

He says other states saw an increase in gun violence when they loosened carry and permit laws.

That hasn't happened in New Jersey yet.

The state says 924 people were shot last year, the lowest figure in at least 15 years.

The impacts were more profound than they would have been in the spotlight.

New Jersey, which has been much more sort of forward thinking and data driven in how we think about firearm access and and the ability of folks to carry in public spaces legally.

Purchase weapons are not used for the most part in crime in New Jersey are crime weapons based upon our data and analysis show and you've heard us say it, that 80% of our crime guns are from outside the state of New Jersey.

Colonel Patrick Callahan with the state police, also says there hasn't been a drastic bump in public shootings or people accidentally shooting their guns.

I think responsible gun owners that follow those procedures that go and get their background checks and have that process done and apply for a permit to carry are just that.

People that tend to go through the process and carry are actually very safe.

They understand that they're carrying a firearm.

They understand the responsibility behind it.

In the wake of the Bruen decision, Attorney General Matt Platkin has sued to uphold state laws banning guns in so-called sensitive places.

His office argued an appeals court in Philadelphia this past October.

But that lawsuit is ongoing, just like the battle over concealed carry in New Jersey in Union.

I'm Ted Goldberg, NJ Spotlight News.