With Corzine trying to paint Chris Christie as a tool of the “gun lobby”, which is kind of amusing since I think most of us think the guy is pretty weak on the issue, third party candidate Chris Daggett’s driver, a retired NJ State Trooper, apparently left a loaded pistol in the glove compartment of a loaner vehicle. Remember, New Jersey can’t pass concealed carry reform because ordinary citizens are too irresponsible, and can’t be trusted to carry guns!
Category: New Jersey
Cooking the Jobs Numbers?
Jim Geraghty noticed that New Jersey’s job numbers are looking surprisingly rosy now that Corzine re-election campaign is really heating up.
Too Fat to Be Governor?
Dave Kopel covers the latest in the New Jersey Governor’s race, and it may end up swinging on weight, namely Chris Christie’s portly proportions. I originally had a fair amount of optimism that Chris Christie’s campaign was going to pull it off, but the hope is rapidly dwindling as Corzine has narrowed and evened up the race. Corzine is outspending Christie three to one, and I just don’t see how that’s not going to help Corzine’s already surging numbers.
I’m not writing the Christie Campaign’s obituary yet, because when the race is close, it becomes a turnout game, and if Christie’s campaign has a strong turnout machine, they can win. But it’s very disappointing that New Jersey voters are shallow enough to give a governor they despise a second term, just because the other guy is fat.
FID & Purchase Permit Application Denials are Up
Cemetery reports that an attorney in New Jersey has noticed the trend:
More importantly however is that gun rights in New Jersey has taken a big step back. Thus, I’m afraid that denials will spike and that they have actually already started. I’ve been very, very successful with the many gun permit applications that I have handled. However, I have noticed an increase in the amount of denials that other people have had.
I doubt the one-gun-a-month law, signed by Governor Corzine last month, has anything to do with it, since it does not go into effect until January. More likely there were many first time gun buyers motivated to go through an unfamiliar process during the Great Obama Gun Rush, and police departments are now getting around to denying a lot of applications which were improperly filled out. Â New Jersey is one of those states where it probably makes sense to hire a lawyer to help you through the process.
More Switcheroo Rumors
Star Ledger Strives for Balance and Fails
I think this article in the Newark Star Ledger that MikeB pointed to in the Star Ledger tries to seek balance, by pointing out both sides of the coin. It’s a tired formula the media uses in attempt to appear balanced and insightful, without actually being balanced and insightful, and still pushing an agenda.
It’s also an intellectual cop-out to suggest we just ought to split the difference and be done with it, as if we’re not already sitting on top of a pile of gun laws and regulations already.  It’s difficult to take an article seriously when it’s author can’t even understand the difference between licensed dealers and black market dealers:
Half the guns used in crimes come from one-percent of gun dealers. There can be better oversight of those dealers, and better enforcement of laws.[…]
In New Jersey last month, undercover State Police busted a Glassboro gun dealer who allegedly sold them two assault weapons and a 37 mm projectile launcher, as part of a crackdown on the one percenters.
The guy in the link above is not a legal gun dealer. There is no change in regulatory oversight or new gun laws that are going to affect him. This isn’t some kind of crack down on otherwise legal gun selling operation. This is smuggling. It’s already operating outside the law.
The anti-gun people are always quick to paint this image of rouge licensed dealers who blatantly and willfully violate the law. If that were the case they’d be in jail. It’s always difficult for them to accept that guns are regulated beyond belief, and those regulations don’t do squat about keeping firearms out of the hands of criminals who really want guns.
We’re the Criminals?
UPDATE: Looks like it was some folks on her campaign that were indicted.
Scott Bach Editorial
Over at NorthJersey.com, in regards to Corzine’s recent signing of S1774, the one-gun-a-month bill in New Jersey.
The only publicly available ATF statistics show, irrefutably, that less than one-half of 1 percent of guns traced by ATF originated as New Jersey multiple handgun sales, which also means that more than 99 percent of traces originated as individual (not multiple) sales.
There simply is no evidence that licensed multiple sales in New Jersey are trafficked or used in crime by their purchasers, and objective evidence demonstrates precisely the opposite.
The sad thing is, they were all told this, and they didn’t care. The goal was never to reduce trafficking. The goal was for Corzine to have a campaign issue that he viewed he could use against Chris Christie.
Races to Watch
Virginia Shooting Sports Association notes that Creigh Deeds is trying to manufacture a controversy over a confederate flag being shown in the background of a Bob McDonnell booth at the Virginia Outdoor Sportsman Show. The flag is pretty clearly behind the booth, not in it. Dave notes that the big story is that Deeds wasn’t even there:
Deeds missed an excellent opportunity to reach out to over 20,000 sportsmen and women. I don’t recall even seeing a booth. Both Tim Kaine and Mark Warner had a campaign booth at the show when they ran for Governor and Warner had a booth last year when he ran for the U.S. Senate.
I was looking for whether Deeds would return back to being more friendly after moving left for the Democratic primary, but that does not appear to be the case. Given that, it’s looking like Bob McDonnell is going to be the pro-gun candidate for this fall in the Virginia gubernatorial election. It doesn’t say good things about you when even Tim Kaine tried harder to at least go through the motions.
Next up we have the latest accusation from the Corzine campaign over in New Jersey. The accusation being that Christie may, at some point in the past, talked with Karl Rove about running for Governor. Corzine’s camp seems to be arguing that this is clearly the case of Christie being a Bush toadie, and that even speaking to the evil Mr. Karl Rove poisons your soul forever. One wonders whether all the conversations Governor Corzine has had with his Wall Street buddies might have rubbed some evil off on him? Sounds to me like Corzine is desparate to try to get something, anything to stick to Chris Christie.
The Heart of the Beast
It looks like we’re getting health care backlash even in New Jersey and Massachusetts. I question whether health care reform is really possible at all given that we already have Medicare. If we do nothing, Medicare is headed for a train wreck anyway — but I don’t think the solution is to nationalize health insurance for everyone, which is what Obama’s plan will eventually do.
I don’t blog on this issue much, because aside from working in the pharmaceutical industry, I don’t have much specific expertise in the issue. But politically, this would seem to be a tough fish to fry. I used to think socialized health care was inevitable. Now I’m not so sure. Everyone says they want reform, but when you talk specifics, people start getting upset over the details.