New Jersey – Page 11 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Tell a Lie Often Enough …

Daniel Vice, the Brady Center’s senior attorney, tells New Jerseyans:

But our countryâ€™s weak gun laws allow traffickers and killers to stockpile guns in states with weaker laws and smuggle them into our communities. In New Jersey, strong laws make it so much harder for criminals to get firearms that guns flood in from states with weak gun laws at a rate seven times higher than the number of crime guns trafficked out of the state.

That’s funny, because in the country I live in this practice is a felony. So I would like to understand how our “weak guns laws” are allowing criminals to “stockpile guns” in states with “weaker laws.” In all 50 states, it’s a felony for criminals to have a single gun or round of ammunition, let alone stockpile them. I’m afraid the weak laws they are speaking of are laws which allow them to be sold at all. One reason firearms are trafficked into New Jersey is that New Jersey only has a relatively small number of FFLs compared to most other states. There are few legal channels in the Garden State, so criminals do what the law abiding can’t, go out of state.

Plainfield Touts Buyback, Gun Shot Detector

Plainfield, New Jersey is yet another community to install gunshot detectors. I don’t honestly have much of a problem with this technology, as if I have to fire a gun within a city’s limits, I want the police showing up quickly. But does it actually work? I’ve yet to hear these systems revolutionizing police work, and their deployment, as best I can tell, has been pretty limited. New Jersey law enforcement seems to be keen on them, however. My guess is the system probably provides a lot of false positives, and doesn’t buy you much in terms of crime prevention for the cost. Cities would probably do better to spend the money on more police.

UPDATE: Interesting study:

Police response times to technology-generated reports of gunfire wereÂ compared to response times to citizen-generated reports both before andÂ during the test period. For the most part, there was little differenceÂ between response times to technology-generated reports of gunfire duringÂ the test period and response times to citizen-generated reports before theÂ test period. However, the mean response time to citizen-generated reportsÂ of gunfire during the test period (about 30 minutes) was about 30 percentÂ less than the mean response time to technology-generated reports (aboutÂ 45 minutes). Nonetheless, the overall mean response time during the testÂ period (to the technology- and citizen-generated reports combined) wasÂ about 41 minutes, just 2 minutes longer than the mean response timeÂ before the test period (to citizen-generated reports only). ResearchersÂ concluded that using the technology did not change in any substantial wayÂ the speed with which the police responded to reports of gunfire.

Also:

There are two possible explanations for this significant increase in policeÂ workloads: First, gunshot detection technology may generate some falseÂ alerts. Given the design of the evaluation and the relatively early stage ofÂ this technology’s development, this first possible explanation could not beÂ explored in more detail. Second, Dallas may have a high rate of unreportedÂ gunfire, at least in the Oak Cliff neighborhood; if so, this finding couldÂ have significant ramifications for future crime analysis and crimeÂ prevention activities that seek to control the random gunfire problem inÂ Dallas.

Given that, it seems to me this technology is a net negative, if it’s not resulting in a better response and is consuming police resources. Yet the conclusion is still relatively positive. But then again, our society likes easy solutions to complex problems, so I guess it’s not surprising.

ANJRPC Hires Executive Director

There’s been a lot of buzz around gun circles about the decision of the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistols Clubs to hire Scott Bach as a full time Executive Director. Bitter and I know Scott pretty well, and he’s been ANJRPC’s full time executive director for a number of years without being paid anything. At some point, even if you plan well, you need to make a living, and for Scott that would have meant going back to spend more time on his law practice.

New Jersey is not going to make any significant gains legislatively for the foreseeable future. The State Assembly and Senate are too hostile to gun rights, and Chris Christie definitely doesn’t want to take a position on the issue by having to sign or veto legislation. New Jersey’s biggest potential gain is through the Courts, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. It is very important for ANJRPC to keep a competent attorney at their helm, and their Board’s decision to hire Scott is a recognition of that fact. While the pay Scott is receiving is less than he would make practicing law, as far as I’m concerned, any amount is well worth it for a gun rights group involved in Second Amendment lawsuits to not become leaderless, and lose a strong legal mind at this critical time.

Just Assume All Photographers Are Pervs

I’m pretty sure that’s the mindset we’re headed towards with stories about fathers and grandfathers being run off of public areas or reported to the police for taking pictures of their own family members. When a raving lunatic woman gets in a man’s face screaming at him for no other reason than he’s taking pictures of his grandchild in his care at the park, where is the media report about a crazed woman attacking men with families?

I love how the local media jumped on the lynch mob bandwagon without actually asking police for more details about the incident that may have given them a clue there’s no probable cause or actual reason for suspicion.

But what really caught my attention was from the related stories. I somehow missed that NJ has a bill that would ban anyone from taking pictures if minors were in it and their parents didn’t feel like it was a situation where their child should be photographed. The punishment? Three to five years in prison and/or a fine up to $15K.

The bill’s sponsors freely admit that it’s completely unconstitutional, but they just want to do something about those perverts who take pictures in public places where minors run around freely. Like this person. Or this one. Or this one.

When it gets the point where I can go through the galleries of scrapbooking sites to find moms who have pictures of their children posted with other minors in the background and declare that in New Jersey, they could face five years in prison if lawmakers get their way, something has gone terribly wrong in our society.

I think what also bothers me is that if the mother in the initial story who screamed at the grandfather truly believed he was a threat, she handled the situation in the wrong way. There’s such a thing as asking questions – questions like “Which one is yours?” – that would give you ammunition if you really did need to call the cops. If you can tell them that a man is truly behaving suspiciously – running from polite contact, admitting that he has no children on site, and he actually does something creepy to or around one of the children, then there’s room for them to investigate. That might actually lead to a situation where a potentially dangerous person is removed from the park, and possibly put behind bars if they discover illegal activities. If I were a mother, I would think that is a far better solution than running around a park screaming at men for no other crime than they have a penis and are caring for their own children or grandchildren. But then again, that might be my sanity getting in the way.

Civil Rights Victory in New Jersey

Evan Nappen is reporting a win in Court in New Jersey. You can see the case here. The police removed the firearms permit of a man for being a habitual drunkard. Despite seeking treatment, and having recovered from his addiction, they refused to re-issue him a permit. The Court in this case appears to have dodged the Second Amendment question, and reached a verdict based on the trial court improperly denying the man the ability to present evidence as to his recovery.

For quite some time the branches of government in New Jersey responsible for enforcing the state’s gun laws have routinely not followed them, and have generally been arbitrary and abusive in regards to gun owners. The courts in the Garden State previously have taken little interest in putting a stop to it, not only allowing the abuses to continue, but adding their own string of abuses and usurpations.

This is an indication that may be changing, if only so they can dispose of the case without addressing the Second Amendment implications. This can only go on for so long. In other words, the courts in New Jersey can try to run, but they can’t hide. Justice will come.

Like You and Me, Only Better

Apparently a New Jersey state trooper used his undercover ID to get out of liability for an accident he was in, causing a multi-year investigation by the accident victim and his lawyer. Looks like the State Police may have helped cover it up too.

What Has Bryan Cryin: NRA U Comes to New Jersey

From what I’ve heard, NRA’s outreach program to college students, to get them involved in the shooting sports and rights protection has been a pretty wild success. Some aren’t pleased to see it coming to New Jersey:

â€œTheir goal is to encourage gun sales any way they can,â€ Ceasefire NJ project director Bryan Miller said. â€œThis is a recruitment drive for the NRA and a sales program for the gun companies.â€

No, Bryan, that’s not our goal at all. We’re here to tell you that your nightmare is true. We will hammer gun control on the relentless anvil of legislative strategy! We are going to beat gun control into submission!

This also is not about handing guns out to students. No one is seriously suggesting that, though from the hysterics of our opponents, you’d never know it. The goal is to make college campuses just like any other public place, people who have state permits are permitted if they so choose, to carry. This is about choice. College students are adults legally, and some small percentage of them are over 21 and have state-issued licenses to carry. Our opponents want to treat these adults like drunken, irresponsible children, and granted, some of them are. But so are some 30 year olds I’ve met. Because some people are irresponsible is not a reason to deny all people the right to bear arms and the right to self-protection.

Coalition to Stop Gun Violence noted yesterday that “When there is an alcohol-related tragedy on campus, you don’t hand out 12-packs.”Â Well, we don’t ban 12 packs, or prohibit drinking either. Despite the fact that alcohol consumption in college has high social costs, we reject the idea of blanket policy and punishment because of the irresponsibility of a few. Alcohol also has no potential to save your life. We can understand there are risk/reward tradeoffs with alcohol, and generally allow college kids of legal age to drink. Our opponents somehow fail to process the same equation when it comes to self-protection and firearms.

Standing Against Federal Overreach

New Jersey? Really? Legally, the Supremacy Clause is a problem for this legislation, but laws like this have useful symbolic value. But seriously, can you believe even New Jersey is looking to nullify federal law when it’s gone too far? I’m generally pretty unenthusiastic about the Firearms Freedom Laws, but that’s mostly because I think this isn’t the right time, rather than it being a bad idea. But it is the right time for states to stand up to the TSA nudo-o-scoping, so for once I’ll cheer on the folks in Trenton.

Newark Chief to Chair Gun Control Subcommittee

The gun control subcommittee of the Major Cities Chiefs Police Association, such a powerful and feared group in the gun control movement, that I’ve never even heard of it.Â I find it amusing that the example he offers as to why we need a new ban on assault weapons involves two firearms that were illegally possessed and are absolutely illegal in New Jersey already. If it doesn’t work, it means you have to double down.

Chris Christie Pessimistic About Gun Law Reform

Unfortunately, the Governor is right. New Jersey is probably the most hostile legislature in the country when it comes to gun rights. Christie is coming at this issue in the same manner the Obama Administration is, in that he’d really prefer it go away, doesn’t want to burn any political capital on the issue, but at the same time doesn’t want to piss anyone off too much.