Category: New Jersey

We talked a while ago about proposals afoot in Trenton that would essentially make the one-gun-a-month law in New Jersey meaningless. That proposal has cleared a major hurdle. That it would boil down to one more form you had to fill out, one more hassle. We’re supposed to believe that illegal gun traffickers are going down to their local police, filling out the paperwork for a permit. Submitting fingerprints, going through a multi-point FBI background check, getting their friends and neighbors interviewed, all to sell guns on the streets on Trenton and Newark. We’re also supposed to believe, now, that this one extra form for multiple purchases is going to be what breaks this cycle of gun trafficking.

“This is a common sense compromise that does nothing to impair the goal of protecting public safety by keeping criminals from obtaining multiple weapons at once,” Burzichelli said. “These changes would correct some unintended consequences while also protecting law-abiding citizens and legitimate businesses.”

Johnson said, “These changes would allow us to continue targeting straw purchases and other illegal handgun trafficking, but would provide reasonable exemptions that make sense. In the end, these changes are simply clarifications that don’t interfere with protecting public safety and combating handgun trafficking.”

Don’t get me wrong, it’s better to make the changes than not, but the fact that they can say, with a straight face, that all the hoops New Jersey makes gun owners jump through doesn’t work well to combat gun trafficking, but this one extra form is certain to do the trick.

If it’s not obvious at this point that the emperor has no clothes, I don’t know what will convince people.

Cemetery has the news. One is a the NICS act which brings New Jersey into compliance with federal law. This actually changes New Jersey’s law in this matter very little. The other is the exceptions for their gun rationing law. I should note this bill differs from the Senate bill, which makes more exceptions. The Assembly bill only covers transfers between dealers, distributors and manufacturers. This is likely why it passed unanimously.

Obviously this isn’t a bad development, but if the politicians in New Jersey think this will make up for screwing over gun owners, yet again, with gun rationing, they are kidding themselves. This just keeps their original bill from being a de-facto ban, which it was.

According to Cemetery:

I’ve heard rumors of a new NJ FID system coming to NJ, which would join the digital era, and somehow, once this license is obtained, there will be no need to visit the local Police for permits.  Everything would happen via NICS  and point of purchase.  Which makes me think that handgun purchases, and One Gun a Month laws, will be permitted, and enforces at point of sale.  But, like I said, all I’ve heard was rumors.

If that’s true, it would be great. But the fact that they are even talking about, as cemetery mentions, making a special class of license for competitive shooters and collectors is encouraging. Keep pushing this, and don’t push the special license, just push getting rid of the purchase permits altogether. It’s New Jersey, so get anything you can, but if they are talking about it, it might be possible to just get rid of the purchase permits altogether. That would be real progress back to reasonable gun laws.

Can’t Fred Madden just admit this one-gun-a-month law is useless and repeal the damned thing? These exceptions proposed to New Jersey’s one-gun-a-month law are useless too. There is no legal definition of “competitive shooter” or “collector.”  There is a type of federal firearms license you can get in the latter category, but having this C&R is not in itself an exception. To get any exception to this law, you have to make an application to the New Jersey State Police, which presumably they will not enthusiastically grant within any reasonable amount of time. What are also the standards for showing you’re a competitive shooter? There is none. This is the most useless thing I’ve ever read:

The applicant shall certify, on a form prescribed by the superintendent, the specific exemption sought and the particular handguns to be purchased. This form shall be submitted to the superintendent at the same time as the permit to purchase a handgun, along with any pertinent documentation supporting the need for an exemption. The superintendent shall consider the veracity, accuracy, and completeness of the information provided in determining whether the applicant meets the requirements for an exemption pursuant to this section. In considering an exemption sought under paragraph (3) of subsection a. of this section, the superintendent shall not consider the merit or validity of the applicant’s collecting activities.

The superintendent shall not grant an exemption if he finds a reasonable likelihood that the public safety would be endangered by granting the exemption, including but not limited to instances where the applicant may be purchasing a handgun to give, sell or distribute to a person who would not qualify to purchase or otherwise acquire a handgun under the provisions of this chapter.

Either two things are going to happen. They will routinely deny exceptions, or they will largely grant all exceptions. In the former, this fix is worthless, and if the latter, the whole law is worthless. If we were silly enough to believe that New Jersey criminals were going to their local police, filling out all the forms for a license to own, and then the forms for multiple pistol purchase permits, submitting to a multi-point FBI background check, submitting references, place of employment, and all the other intrusive things New Jersey asks for to own guns. Now Senator Fred Madden would have us believe that adding one more form to the process is going to put a stop to criminals getting guns legally and selling them to other felons? Hogwash. The worst part is, I think he knows this is hogwash. But this is New Jersey, and politics is politics.

A bill has been introduced to fix all the problems with New Jersey’s gun rationing scheme, namely to allow exceptions for retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers, and also to allow exceptions for police, and for inheritance.

The sponsor of the measure is none other than Fred Madden, who is responsible for this mess in the first place. While I appreciate he’s trying, like a petulant child, to wash the crayon of the wall, it’s not going to prevent his punishment from being meted out next election day.

Seems to me it would just be easier to repeal it. This list of things that needs improving shows the absurdity of this law in the first place.

People are starting to notice that the gun rationing law passed in the fall at the behest of soon-to-be-ex-Governor Corzine has some serious problems. I’m put off though that the powers that be are claiming they just suddenly realized this:

“As it stands now, retailers would be prohibited from purchasing guns from their suppliers,” said Burlington County Prosecutor Robert Bernardi, who leads the task force. “I think that was an oversight when the legislation was passed.”

The law exempts sales between licensed gun dealers, but not purchases from distributors or manufacturers, which are classified differently under New Jersey law.

It wasn’t an oversight. They were told what this legislation would do, and they didn’t care. Once they bought the vote of Fred “One Gun A Month” Madden, they passed it, and Corzine signed it. Consequences be damned. We’ll fix the problems later, you know, if we feel like it.