Point. Counterpoint. For those of you unfamiliar with the process of purchasing a firearm in New Jersey.
- First you need to get a license, called a Firearm Owners ID (or FID for short) card. To apply for an FID, you have to call your local police department, who may only staff firearm permitting division part time, so they might not be open every day, or at convenient hours. The cost is five dollars.
- In addition to a FID card, you will need a permit to purchase a handgun. Applications are also filed with the local police department. Pistol purchase permits are only valid for ninty days after they issue. The cost is two dollars.
- You will need to be fingerprinted. This costs 25 to 50 dollars. You only have to do this for a first application, but many police departments insist this is not the case.
- The law states that the police have thirty days to conduct a 13 point background check, and issue or deny an FID application or permits to purchase handguns, but the fact is that it often takes months, and the courts in New Jersey are uninterested in holding issuing authorities to the law.
- You are required to submit to the police a list of two references, who are not related to you. They will inquire with these references as to your disposition, drinking habits, mental health, and whether the reference would have any issue with their buying a firearm. I have been listed as a reference for New Jersey people on FID applications, and I was appalled at the personal questioned asked. Even in Pennsylvania, for a license to carry a loaded firearm concealed on one’s person, the sheriffs that do check references are far more discrete and respectful.
If requiring this for each and every handgun purchase has not been sufficient to stop criminal trafficking of firearms, it’s beyond insane to believe that adding one more requirement, one that rations the number of purchase permits police may issue, is going to be what does the trick. Criminals don’t obey laws about robbery, murder, and aggrevated assault. They definitely aren’t going to obey regulatory laws, no matter how “more illegal” you make them. We sound like a broken record with this, but many just don’t seem to want to accept it.
Mayor *I’ll have another round* Healy is pushing AGAIN for a one gun a month law in Jersey City. Even tho
But as you know, Seb, these laws are not intended to keep guns out of the hands of criminals; they’re intended to keep guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens.
And of course, when they deny that, they’re lying. Big surprise.
Well, you know, New Jersey has become a communist police state. What better symbol of that than the Bear, with which we all know New Jersey is overrun.
Any word on how the vote went today? I’ve been looking, but to no avail. My suspicion is that it passed. I have (slightly) more hope for the Senate.
Never mind–it passed easily (47-28-4). Let’s hope for better things from the Senate.
Why not push for ‘one murder per year’, or something to that effect.
To paraphrase an unknown source, “I believe I have a finite number of breaths, and I’m not going to waste any of them arguing with these twits” It really is enough to make me consider going to the dark side and utterly ignoring the law, because there’s little evidence that they care about prosecuting real criminals anyway.
i used to live intexas it took 1 form and a 1/2 hour and i could take home a gun ,a hunting rifle and a pump shot gun $50.00 and a 4 hour class and you got a concealed permit good for 20 years you did not flip the bird or road rage in texas it could get you killed i had to sell my weapons before i moved back to nj