New Jersey – Page 12 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Five Too Many

New Jersey already limits magazine capacity to fifteen rounds in magazines. Apparently some lawmakers think that having those five extra rounds is just too wild and crazy, and are proposing to reduce the arbitrary and ridiculous limit to ten.

Truth is, New Jersey is in the middle of the pack. Maryland is 20 rounds. New York is 10. New Jersey was in the middle. The even greater truth is these lines are totally arbitrary, and have nothing to do with public safety. This is just another opportunity for our opponents to get more law abiding un owners behind bars where they think we belong.

Busted For Nerf Gun

Joan Peterson wants to talk about bizarro world, where everyone worships guns, versus her world of bunnies, flowers, and kittens. I bring you the opposite extreme, which is the State of New Jersey, where having a nerf gun can bring the full force of the state down on your family. In a better world, this would result in parents being called and detention, maybe suspension, for poor behavior, at most. In Joan Peterson’s world, this is a matter for law enforcement and state prosecutors. Which world do you want to live in?

No Right to Own a Gun in New Jersey

Eugene Volokh relays a case where a man was denied buying a gun because he slammed doors very hard.

New Jersey AG on That Whole “Bear Arms” Thing

From an ANJRPC alert, we have the text of the Attorney General’s brief in the lawsuit over New Jersey’s carry laws:

New Jerseyâ€™s carefully conceived and long-standing regulatory scheme is rooted in an appreciation that a permit to carry may not afford any measure of self-protection to a particular applicant and would instead increase the risk of the applicant being involved in “the known and serious dangers of misuse and accidental use.â€ When a handgun is carried in public, the serious risks and dangers of misuse and accidental use are borne by the public.

New Jersey has not merely a significant interest but a compelling interest in combating handgun violence and combating the dangers and risks associated with the accidental and misuse of handguns, which are inherent in carrying a handgun. It also has a compelling interest in reducing the use of handguns in crimes. A governmentâ€™s foremost function is to ensure the safety of all of its citizenry. When handguns are permitted to be carried beyond oneâ€™s home, the dangers and risks necessarily increase and are borne by the public.

Generally speaking, one cannot know whether crime against an individual will occur at all, much less know when, where, or how. Neither then can one know whether a handgun would provide an effective measure of self-defense and be safe to use as to other victims or bystanders. Further, the “needâ€ for a handgun for self-defense outside of the home does not stand alone. The carrying of a handgun inherently comes with the dangers and risks of its misuse or accidental use. These dangers and risks are borne by everyone with whom the person encounters.

That’s kind of funny, considering 40 or so other states seem to manage some kind of shall-issue policy without blood running in the streets. This would also seem to be the kind of policy argument, advocated by Justice Breyer, that the Heller and McDonald majorities rejected. In addition to this statement, she’s’ trying to get ANJRPC and SAF thrown off the lawsuit.

Worse Than ATF

ATF is actually pretty good at getting guns to double up so they can say it’s a machine gun, even if it’s not really. Apparently the New Jersey State Firearms Examiner had some difficulty getting an M1919A4 to actually shoot, but declared it a machine gun anyway.

Well, we already know that evidence in New Jersey isn’t really all that necessary anyway.

“Step Away From the Pump, Sir”

Apparently pumping your own gas, which is unlawful in New Jersey, can be used as a reason to stop someone and search them. Sadly for this guy, when they searched him, they found a loaded gun.

Homicides Up 15% in New Jersey

Washington D.C.’s violent crime rate might be going down, but New Jersey’s is going up. That’s because they are busy spending resources prosecuting otherwise law abiding people for violating their ridiculous gun laws rather than locking up criminals. Of course, we all know it’s Pennsylvania’s lax gun laws that are causing this, because it’s always someone else’s fault. It’s never that the laws in question simply don’t work.

Interestingly, New York’s murder rate has also been up, and as we’ve noted before, New Jersey’s murder rate seems to closely track that of New York City.

New Jersey Laws Hurt Gun Owners

Scott Bach is calling on the New Jersey Statehouse to do something about the state’s laws which entrap honest gun owners. Brian Aitken isn’t the first, not by far. He was just lucky enough to get caught up in the perfect storm. There are a lot of honest citizens walking around New Jersey with felony convictions because they ran afoul of a technicality. This, to me, is also a disturbing part:

But that never happened because the judge refused to let the jury consider the testimony or the exemptions themselves: He had predetermined that none applied.Â Counsel protested repeatedly, and the jury itself three times asked why it couldnâ€™t consider the exemption, but the judge refused every request, eventually lecturing the jury: â€œThe issue of whether the defendant was moving, and therefore entitled to an exemption from the permit requirement, is not before you.â€ Accordingly, the jury had no choice but to convict merely because there were firearms present.

Not long after the clemency, Mr. Aitken got an e-mail from one of the jurors:

“It is unbelievable how much power a judge possesses,” the e-mail read. “Why wasn’t the exception allowed by the judge??? Did he have something against you or your attorney???? Again, glad to see you are out.”

See, I don’t absolve the jury of blame in this injustice. To me they are just as guilty as the prosecutor and the judge. Ignorance of their civic duty is no excuse. The judge has exactly zero power to punish a jury for a verdict, even in New Jersey. If the jury felt that Aitken should not be convicted, they should have acquitted him despite the judges orders. The fact that a jury was willing to convict this guy shows just how far we’ve fallen in terms of our civic understanding of our relationship to our government, and the role juries play as a check on government officials.

Chris Christie Not All That Pro Gun

Bob Owens notes that the guy’s record on guns isn’t that great. This much is true, but you have to consider what state he’s coming from. Commuting Aitken’s sentence was a remarkable thing for a New Jersey governor to do. Should he earn an NRA endorsement any time soon? No. But so far, even with this one act, he’s been willing to do more for New Jersey gun owners than all the governors for the past half century combined. That’s how bad things are there.

New Jersey Bear Hunt a Success

But it might not be enough:

A study commissioned by the state Division of Fish and Wildlife and performed by wildlife biologists at East Stroudsburg University estimated the number of bears in two study areas of northwest New Jersey at almost 3,500. There were 589 bears killed in the hunt, which is 17 percent of the population. In spite of the culling, biologists believe there will be at least 800 cubs born in winter dens and emerging next spring. In other words, the culling was designed to reduce the rate of black bear population growth. There will be more black bears next year but the number will more likely be about 3,700 instead of 4,300.

That’s an unbelievable number of bears for as small a habitat as New Jersey’s forested areas represent. But even if the bear population is still growing, the hunt will benefit New Jerseyans by culling the bears that are least fearful of humans, leaving the survivors being the ones who are adept at avoiding us.