When Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) was seriously running for the Republican nomination for President, high profile cases involving New Jersey’s unjust gun laws tended to bring clemency. In this latest case involving a Pennsylvania corrections officer who was hit by a drunk driver on his way home from Atlantic City, one has to wonder.
Ginny Simone, in a report for NRA News, discusses the case of Sgt. Ray Hughes who is facing felony charges.
Lesley Stahl had a long piece on so-called smart guns last night on CBS’ 60 Minutes. She talked to a lot of people including New Jersey State Senator Loretta Weinberg. Here is the part of the transcript where Stahl speaks with Weinberg and intersperses it with comments from a Maryland FFL.
Loretta Weinberg, the New Jersey state senator who authored the law, didn’t foresee its consequences.
Loretta Weinberg: We passed that bill to help spur this technology.
Lesley Stahl: It appears it totally backfired because it spurred this passionate objection to the gun.
Loretta Weinberg: Because of the intervention of the NRA and the Second Amendment folks.
Lesley Stahl: That, they say, the reason they intervened is because of the mandate.
Loretta Weinberg: Right. It isn’t the law that’s stopped the development. It is the people who threatened folks who actually wanted to sell such a gun.
Andy Raymond came to realize that even if he had sold the Armatix gun in Maryland, it might’ve triggered the mandate, banning the sale of regular handguns in New Jersey.
[Andy Raymond: The people of New Jersey: my apologies. You got nothing to worry about from me.]
Andy Raymond: I did apologize. I’m… I’m sorry. Sorry to this day.
Lesley Stahl: Did you actually sell any of the Armatix guns?
Andy Raymond: No.
After his case came to her attention, the New Jersey senator offered to rescind the mandate if the gun lobby publicly removed its opposition to smart guns. She’s yet to hear back.
Loretta Weinberg: They seem to oppose almost everything. Anytime we suggest anything we’ve gotten very little cooperation back.
Lesley Stahl: If the law were completely repealed, do you think that the gun lobby would then let this go forward?
Loretta Weinberg: No.
Earlier in the story, Stahl said that the so-called smart guns could help on-duty cops because it would prevent criminals from using the cop’s gun on the cop as has been the case so often. As the story shows, it worked for James Bond in the movie Skyfall when a bad guy tried to shoot 007 with his own gun.
The New Jersey Childproof Handgun Law mandates that once the Attorney General of that state certifies that so-called smart or personalized handguns are available for retail sale anywhere in the United States that only these sort of guns can be sold to consumers in New Jersey. However, there are exceptions and the biggest one is this:
b. The provisions of this section shall not apply to handguns to be sold, transferred, assigned
and delivered for official use to: (1) State and local law enforcement officers of this State; (2)
federal law enforcement officers and any other federal officers and employees required to carry
firearms in the performance of their official duties and (3) members of the Armed Forces of the
United States or of the National Guard.
Given this large and glaring exception to the personalized handgun mandate in New Jersey, why didn’t Ms. Stahl ask Sen. Weinberg something along these lines:
Stahl: Sen. Weinberg, given that police officers guns are often turned on them by criminals, why did you specifically exempt law enforcement officers from your bill?
Weinberg: Ummm. Because cops need a reliable gun and this technology is not reliable? Can we get back to talking about how it is the NRA’s fault that none of these guns are available for sale!
I would posit that Stahl did not ask the question because she already knew the answer or, at least, the producers of the segment knew it. To ask the question would have muddied the narrative and that just wouldn’t do.
You can see the whole episode here.
This past Saturday the New Jersey Second Amendment Society (NJ2AS) rallied to gather signatures for a recall of NJ Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester). According to NJ.com, there were 200 activists there ready to go door to door to gather signatures.
We have interviewed both Alexander Roubian and Dan Roberts on The Polite Society Podcast about their plans for this event. It should be noted that only New Jersey registered voters are allowed to solicit the signatures. Thus, the majority of the people at the event were residents of the state registered to vote.
Bearing that in mind, I was amused to read this comment in the story from gun prohibitionist Bryan Miller of Ceasefire NJ and Heeding God’s Call.
Bryan Miller, executive director of Heeding God’s Call, a faith-based group in Philadelphia that seeks to prevent gun violence, called to respond to the NJSAS gathering on Saturday.
When he heard about the number of people who showed to the event, he said he didn’t think it was “a very impressive number.”
Can you say “sour grapes”? When was the last time the anti-gunners were able to assemble 200 people in one place for a protest even if they were paid and bused in? They didn’t get that many in Nashville even though they tried to make it look like more through trick photography.
Sorry, Bryan, but 200 people that are predominantly registered voters in a state that isn’t gun friendly is a heckuva lot of activists.
I’d like to also note that newly elected NRA Board member Tim Knight spoke to the rally before they set forth to gather signatures. It is great to see a NRA Board member getting down in the trenches with gun owners in the fight for gun rights.
Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) granted a “full and free pardon” to Steffon Josey-Davis. Mr. Davis was the armored car guard and would-be policeman who got caught up in the Byzantine labyrinth of New Jersey’s gun laws.
The North Brunwsick armored car driver who took a plea for illegally transporting his legally owned handgun in his car has received a pardon from Gov. Chris Christie, the governor’s office announced Monday.
The clemency granted by Christie to Steffon Josey-Davis, 24, gives him a “full and free” pardon for all criminal charges stemming from his September 2013 arrest.
We interviewed Steffon on the Polite Society Podcast back in February. You can hear our interview with him here. I am very happy for Steffon and hope he can get his law enforcement career back on track. He was a nice, sincere young man and he deserved this pardon.
You can see the pardon below:
Given the recent tragedy where Carol Bowne died at the hands of her ex-boyfriend while waiting for a pistol purchase permit, this is good news. My fellow podcaster Rob Morse has more on the murder of Ms. Bowne here.
My friend Frank Fiamingo highlighted this story about a middle school student who brought a 9mm Glock to school in Maplewood, New Jersey. What makes this story interesting is not that the kid brought a gun to school but what he was charged with.
The student, whose name has not been released due to his status as a juvenile, now stands charged with possession of a weapon on school property, possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes, and possession of penetrating bullets, authorities said.
Penetrating bullets? Isn’t that the whole point? Are police in New Jersey the only ones allowed to have ammunition that penetrates the bodies of miscreants? I don’t know about you but I want penetrating bullets!*
*I am presuming that what they meant to charge him with is possession of hollow-point bullets. The New Jersey criminal code section 2C:39-3.f does outlaw both hollow points and handgun bullets that are capable of penetrating body armor.
The prosecution of Gordan Van Gilder for possession of an antique flintlock pistol was a travesty from the start. This was compounded when Cumberland County (NJ) Sheriff Robert Austino tried to smear the retired school teacher by saying he was arrested in a “known drug area” while trying to buy drugs.
Fortunately, this afternoon Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae showed some sense and used her prosecutorial discretion to dismiss the case.
I don’t think we would have seen this happen without the pressure brought to bear based upon the peculiar circumstances of this case. It was ridiculous from the start and the Prosecutor’s Office knew it. They were the ones left to clean up the mess left by New Jersey law enforcement.
Now it is time as some New Jersey legislators have suggested to clean up the law. While I would love to see the entire law scrapped, I know that isn’t going to happen. At best, the definition of a firearm will be brought in line with that of the Federal law and pre-1898 firearms will be excluded.
New Jersey judges have quite the sense of humor. On Monday, the judiciary system raised about 80 of their court fees. The money will be used to pay for bail reform, increase monies going to Legal Services of NJ, and an improved electronic filing system. They expect to raise $42 million in revenue from these increased fees annually.
Included in the increases are these:
Among the increases taking effect: Filing a lawsuit, an appeal or for divorce costs $50 more. Filing a small claim costs $35, up from $15. Permits to carry a handgun cost $50, rather than $20, and it now costs $50 to appeal a denial of a permit to buy a handgun.
The fee for getting a permit to carry a handgun might as well be $1 million given that it takes an act of God to get a New Jersey carry permit and even an act of God might not help. As Frank Fiamingo, President of the New Jersey Second Amendment Society, said:
What permits to carry a handgun? New Jersey does not issue permits to carry a handgun to law-abiding civilians. Unless you walk into the court with some thug holding a gun directly to your temple, you will be denied, and then denied upon appeal. The entire system is rigged to keep free people from exercising their natural human right to defend innocent life.
Atlantic County, NJ Prosecutor Jim McClain broke his silence on the Ray Rice assault case Wednesday. According to the Press of Atlantic City, McClain said:
“Even if they disagree with why I did what I did, I just want people to know the decision was made after careful consideration of the law, careful consideration of the facts, hearing the voice of the victim and considering all the parameters,” he said. “I want people to have confidence in this agency, even if they don’t agree with everything we do.”
Rice was charged with third-degree aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury. Third-degree charges — especially for someone like Rice with no criminal record — carry a presumption of no incarceration.
To result in a second-degree aggravated assault charge, a crime has to involve “serious,” or permanent, bodily injury. There is no first-degree charge of aggravated assault.
“People need to understand, the choice was not PTI versus five years’ state prison,” McClain said. “The choice was not PTI versus the No Early Release Act on a 10-year sentence. The parameters as they existed were: Is this a PTI case or a probation case?”
Confidence in this agency? Is Mr. McClain making a joke?
Let me see if I have this straight. An NFL player with a multi-million dollar contract punches his wife-to-be in the head so severely that she is knocked unconscious. Reading some of the boxing literature on knockouts, the force of the punch causes the brain “to smash against the inside of the skull, near the base of the skull” from inertia. Being knocked out may also involve a concussion and other brain injuries.
The Association of Boxing Commissions consider this such a severe injury that boxers are given a minimum 60-day medical suspension from all boxing activity when KO’ed. Remember these are trained athletes who are engaging in a sport that involves hits to the head and body and not a young mother.
So my question for Atlantic County Prosecutor Jim McClain is this: please explain how Shaneen Allen, a young mother with an unblemished criminal record and certainly no record of violence, who made an honest mistake due to a misunderstanding of the law and which hurt no one, is more of a menace to society than a coddled star athlete with anger management issues who inflicted serious bodily injury on a woman. The latter was given pre-trial intervention while the former is facing up to 10 years in prison even though she, as well, could have been given pre-trial intervention save for your intransigence.
To paraphrase Shakespeare, something is rotten in the state of New Jersey.
And lest readers think that Gov. Chris Christie is blameless in this whole affair, it was Christie himself who appointed McClain to be the County Prosecutor two years ago. Christie was criticized at the time over the quality of some of his prosecutorial nominations including McClain. We can see the basis for that criticism now all too well.
The headline, “there is no justice for gun owners in New Jersey”, is a statement by Brian Aitken on the treatment that he and Shaneen Allen have received from that state’s justice system. He is featured in a new NRA News Report by Ginny Simone entitled “Accidental Criminals: Brian Aitken is Living the Nightmare”.
As both Aitken and Allen point out, if Ms. Allen had lied to the officer when stopped for the traffic violation in Atlantic County, New Jersey, she wouldn’t be facing up to 10 or more years in prison for being an “accidental criminal”. The judge in her case told her that telling the truth didn’t matter in this case; it got her in trouble. Isn’t incentivizing lying a perversion of any justice system?
Moreover, as Aitken points out, the gun laws of New Jersey are not meant to deter criminals but rather to deter honest citizens from actually owning firearms. Both judges and prosecutors want to use these “accidental criminals” as poster children for their goal of a disarmed public.
Every potential juror in Atlantic County should see this video along with Simone’s earlier one on Shaneen Allen. If they understood the ramifications, they might just vote “not guilty” in the jury room. Her case is a strong argument for jury nullification.
The list of ridiculous bills that the New Jersey Legislature has passed and that Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) needs to veto has grown again. In addition to the magazine ban bill this is sitting on his desk, there is now a bill that totally bans ivory or “ivory products”. This ban extends to 10,000 year old ivory from mammoth tusks.
Ivory products are more than carved elephant tusks. They would include things like the keys on older Steinway concert pianos, 150-year old whale scrimshaw, slabs and handles from knives, old billiard balls, and the grips on George Patton’s revolvers. Banning the transfer of ivory or ivory products at the state level does nothing to stop elephant poaching in Africa.
Knife Rights has issued a strongly worded alert on this bill. Reading through the bill myself, I agree that it is all encompassing and permits no real exceptions. It is a bill that ought to be vetoed.
In a move
that caught just about
everyone by surprise, last
week the New Jersey
legislature quietly passed
S.2012/A.3128,
a draconian total ivory ban
bill with no exemptions for
existing legal ivory and
that even bans
10,000-year-old mammoth
ivory. This
poorly drafted bill even
opens the door to outright
confiscation of
ivory-handled knives and
arrest of knife owners!
Knife
Rights unequivocally
supports legitimate
efforts to stop the
illegal slaughter of
elephants in Africa
,
but
this
bill will not save a
single elephant
.
Unfortunately,
instead of going after
poachers, smugglers
and traders of illicit
ivory, the New Jersey
legislature has
decided to launch an
all-out attack on
innocent New Jerseyans
by passing an absurd
TOTAL Ivory Ban
that
will not save a single
living elephant
.
Knife
Rights has asked Gov.
Christie to veto this
irrational and very
destructive bill.
If
you are a New Jersey
resident or do business
in New Jersey, WRITE or
CALL the Governor TODAY
and ask him to VETO
S.2012/A.3128.
The NJ Ivory Ban Bill
outlaws ALL ivory from ANY
ANIMAL (elephant, hippo,
mammoth, narwhal, walrus,
whale, etc.). It makes it
illegal to to import, sell,
offer for sale, purchase,
barter or possess with
intent to sell (a
intentionally vague term of
law subject to abusive
interpretation that could
lead to knife confiscations
and arrests) any
ivory or ivory product with no
exceptions for antique or
heretofore legal ivory
imported decades ago prior to
the existing 24-year-old U.S.
ban on ivory imports.This ban would
irreparably harm owners of
ivory-handled and fossil
ivory-handled knives,
antiques, musical instruments
and any items containing ivory
legally imported into this
country decades ago by
stripping their value – a
taking of millions of dollars
from law-abiding New
Jerseyans. The ban would
criminalize legitimate
business owners and cause
immediate ruinous financial
loss for them. It will
cost the state millions of
dollars in tax revenue and
not
save a single living
elephant!This
bill will not save a
single elephant
because study after study
have shown no connection
between the legal ivory
market in decades-old
ivory in the U.S. and
poaching in Africa. International
and U.S. studies
document that virtually
all the ivory poached in
Africa goes to China
where it is valued at 6
times the price of
decades-old legal ivory
in the U.S.
Moreover, it is already a
federal crime to import
ivory into the U.S. and a
crime to possess or sell
illegally imported ivory.
This outrageous
and draconian bill also
represents an unconstitutional
“taking” of
protected private property,
violating both the Fifth
Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution and Article 1, #1
and #20 of the N.J.
Constitution.
While lawsuits
challenging this law, if
signed, wend their way though
the courts, untold hundreds or
thousands of ivory owners will
be arrested and prosecuted
under this absurd law.NOTHING IN THIS
ABSURD BILL WILL SAVE A
SINGLE ELEPHANT!
This is “feel
good – do bad”
legislation at its
worst!
New
Jersey residents and all
who do business in New
Jersey should WRITE or
CALL the Governor TODAY
and ask him to VETO S.2012/A.3128.
Call the Governor at: 609-292-6000When you call or
write, all you need to do is
ask the Governor to VETO
S.2012/A.3128, the ivory Ban
Bill. If you’d like to write
more, click
here for Knife Rights’ NJ
Ivory Ban Model Letter to
Gov.
Christie.
by