Category: New Jersey

So far a lot of non-specific posturing. Hopefully they will go in a different direction that doesn’t mirror the Assembly’s attempt to essentially destroy gun ownership in the Garden State once and for all.

Over at The Blaze. Apparently The New Jersey Department of Youth and Family Services got wind of this picture and decided to do a raid. Showed up at the guy’s house demanding access to the home and guns, without a warrant. The wife wisely contacted the husband, who wisely contacted his lawyer, who wisely advised him to tell the fuzz to piss off. They then threatened to take his kids.

The worker refused to identify herself. Mr. Moore demanded that she giver her name. She refused and ran away.

As of Tuesday morning, Mr. Nappen believes that DYFS is still pushing for an inspection, “which is not happening.”

A lot of these family services folks are really no better than petty tyrants. This is what’s going to happen to gun owners all over the country if our opponents get this way. New Jersey is about as close to the end game as we have an example of in this country. Gun owners there are pariah, and they are treated as such by every level of the government, who is used to getting away with this kind of thing. Our demands are pretty simple: the Second Amendment has to be taken seriously, and be given the same stature as every other right.

But in the mean time, when the cops show up at your house over a matter like this, the less you say the better. I recommend this doormat.

I’ve seen this story about a woman having her guns seized by police popping up in a few places. New Jersey routinely abuses people’s right to keep and bear arms, and I’d be willing to give this woman the benefit of doubt. But I’d also suggest there could be more to the story than that. She’s claiming she never issued a threat, or even said the word gun at a meeting. The police say otherwise. Who’s telling the truth?

On an article about Chris Christie:

Politicians who don’t trust law-abiding citizens to own guns do NOT see them as equal members of a democratic republic. To put it bluntly, they see them as serfs. Or children who need to be protected from themselves. And that sort of attitude will NEVER get you the nomination from a Republican Party that wants to keep Conservatives inside the Big Tent. NEVER. The way he treats the voters of New Jersey is the way he will treat the voters of America. Take it to the bank. The Second Amendment is not just one amendment in the Bill of Rights: It’s the Founders’ message to the citizens of America – “We Trust You”. And if you fold on that amendment? You’ll fold on all the others. Guaranteed.

Yep. That’s one reason I believe this issue is so important: it goes way beyond guns and hits at the heart of how a politician views the relationship between the people and their government. How a politician feels about an armed populace tells me a lot about how they think.

New Jersey is actually a great microcosm for how gun politics would play out if we gave into them on a national level. The Garden State is further along the path than many other places. The last gasp, so to speak, for the gun vote in New Jersey was the ouster of Jim Florio. Florio had backed New Jersey’s assault weapons ban in May of 1990, and in 1993 vetoed an attempt by the GOP controlled legislature to repeal the law. Florio managed to piss in plenty of other people’s Wheaties too, and by the time the next election rolled around, he was out and Christie Whitman was in, with promises to gun owners. Whitman then proceeded to do exactly nothing, and that was it for the gun vote in New Jersey.

It’s not that there are no gun owners in New Jersey, there are still many of them, but they have been broken, first by the Democrats, and then by the Republicans. The Republicans in New Jersey no longer view the gun vote as anything worth cultivating. Why? Years of onerous regulation, dating back in 1966, has greatly reduced the incidence of firearms ownership in the Garden State. Gun ownership, unsurprisingly, is a key indicator of one’s views on gun control. Without a lot of gun ownership, you have a fertile garden of ignorance that opponents of civilian gun ownership are very adept at cultivating. You end up with Democrats against gun ownership because they hate it, and the Republicans afraid to touch the issue because they don’t want to risk losing votes of the ignorant who are easily manipulated into thinking they want to to supply weapons to crazies, criminals, and terrorists so they can mow down kindergartens with 50 caliber heavy machine guns. The failure of the gun rights movement in New Jersey to effectively change anything, and their subsequent abandonment by the Republican Party, made a lot of gun owners just give up. They stopped caring or paying attention to the political fight.

And this is exactly the future President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg has planned for the rest of us. What remains to be seen is whether the national Republicans will play along.

After getting a push from Obama’s activism wing to turn out more Democrats against gun rights in Trenton, the Assembly passed their gun control bill package.

According to some commentary by the Senate President, Sen. Steve Sweeney, the Senate does not plan to push these bills through quickly. Now, that doesn’t mean that they won’t pass. It just means that NJ residents have time to call and try to oppose the legislation – unlike New York residents.

ANJRPC is reporting that the likely possible dates for votes are in March or April, but nothing is actually planned at the moment.

Cemetery notes that a MoveOn protest was counter-protested quite effectively in Westfield, New Jersey. Westfield is in North Jersey, and spitting distance away from Manhattan. Our opponents can be given no refuge, be allowed to dominate no forum. We are everywhere, and I’m glad to see us acting like we’re everywhere. Also, there seems to be a local group forming around here seemingly out of thin air. We just reached out to these people to ask what we can do to help. I have a feeling my days of struggling to get people really engaged in this issue may be drawing to a close. Thanks Obama!

And I have to say, while we’re linking to Cemetery’s blog, this is the coolest picture I’ve seen in a while.

Today is the day, where we undergo a coordinated attack across many states by the anti-gun forces of Mike Bloomberg and the Obama Administration. I wish good luck to our fellow fighters in New Jersey, where a vote on the 20 or so gun control measures will be taken at the Capitol in Trenton. Trenton isn’t the whole story though. There are also votes happening in other states, so be sure to keep a close eye on your own state legislatures. But the best defense is often a good offense, and we are on the move in the following states:

• Idaho
• Wyoming, though there are complications.
• Oklahoma
• Alaska
• Arkansas
• Kentucky
• Maine

This is well and good, and don’t see any reason we shouldn’t continue to push positive legislation while our opponents are spread thin and getting tired. Remember that as much as we might feel spread thin and tired, they are far less numerous than we are, and they are being given quite an education on that. The more delusional among them still believe they are fighting some nefarious “gun industry” or “gun lobby,” but as we show up in more and more places, it gets harder and harder to deny this is a movement of citizens, not of faceless corporations and lobbyists.