Currently Browsing: New Jersey
May 20, 2013
Posted by Sebastian in Gun Rights, New Jersey | 4 comments
From ANRPC:
This afternoon, the New Jersey Assembly passed 4 gun bills, as follows:
A3797(Requires NJ State Police to disclose confidential ATF trace data in violation of federal law). This bill now moves to the Governor’s desk.
A3796(Reopens “assault” firearms compliance window for only 180 days; fails to allow compliance for prohibited magazines and ammunition). This bill now moves to the Governor’s desk.
A3583(Creates school security task force). This bill now moves to the Governor’s desk.
A3717(Submits mental health records to NICS – no stated requirement of due process). This bill was amended today and will have to be reconsidered by the full Senate (next scheduled meeting is currently May 30th).
Major state house activity is not anticipated until the next full Senate floor vote.
Additional updates and action alerts will be forthcoming.
Is that it? If that’s it, you guys got off a lot lighter than I would have figured.
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May 14, 2013
Posted by Sebastian in New Jersey | 4 comments
Most of the “uncontroversial” (only to NJ politicians) made it through the Senate, save one:
The Senate also continues to refuse to take up a bill approved by the Assembly to reduce the number of bullets permitted in a magazine from 15 to 10 rounds, although Assembly leaders appeared to have softened their position on blocking the Senate gun bills in return.
A big unknown in all this is how serious Chris Christie is about his presidential ambitions. Even if he plays the Schwarzenegger game of symbolically vetoing one provision or two, but signing the rest of the package, it’ll be over for him. There’s not much middle ground left on this issue anymore. The states that have generally been pro-gun have grown their gun culture, and gotten more pro-gun, and the states that successfully destroyed it have gotten more anti-gun. Christie has the misfortune of being a Republican in an anti-gun state, but I think even New Jersey Republicans have seriously overestimated the ability of this issue to hurt them. Christie could veto all of this, still get re-elected, and still be a contender in a Presidential run.
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May 13, 2013
Posted by Sebastian in Gun Rights, New Jersey | 5 comments
From ANJRPC, here are the bills that are currently up in the NJ Senate:
S2723(Throws out existing FID cards & replaces with driver license endorsement or other form of ID; suspends Second Amendment rights without proof of firearms training, including for all current handgun owners; imposes 7-day waiting period for handgun purchases; ends all private sales; effectively creates a registry of ammunition purchases and long gun sales; additional impacts).
S2178(fifty caliber ban)
S2485(Suspends Second Amendment rights based on a secret government list – no due process)
S2718(Requires NJ State Police to disclose confidential ATF data in violation of federal law)
S2492(Submits mental health records to NICS – no stated requirement of due process)
2719(License suspension and imprisonment of firearms dealers; vehicle forfeiture for traffickers)
S2468(Impounds vehicles for unlawful possession)
S2722(Reopens “assault” firearms compliance window for only 180 days; fails to allow compliance for prohibited magazines and ammunition)
S2720(Mandates public disclosure of total numbers of FID cards and handgun permits issued)
S2430(Establishes “violence” study commission; fails to include 2A community member on commission)
S2715 (Requires Dept. of Education to prepare anti-violence pamphlets)
S2724(Creates school security task force)
S2552(Protects gun owner identity from public disclosure)
S2725(Reduces penalty for airgun possession from second to third degree)
UPDATE: More here from the Star-Ledger.
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May 10, 2013
Posted by Sebastian in Anti-Gun Folks, New Jersey | 19 comments
From ANJRPC. I’m forced to swipe their whole release because they don’t provide links:
NJ SENATORS’ TRUE VIEW OF GUN OWNERS REVEALED BY HOT MICROPHONE FOLLOWING YESTERDAY’S HEARING
Call the Senate Majority Office Immediately to Express Your Outrage
And Demand That Monday’s Bill Package be Held
An astute person listening to the official audio recording of yesterday’s Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee hearing noticed that the official recording continued following conclusion of the hearing. The discussion that was caught, apparently among several senators and staff, is outrageous, and reveals legislators’ true view of gun owners.
A YouTube video with an excerpt of that recording has been posted here. The following lines can be heard in the recording:
“We needed a bill that was going to confiscate, confiscate, confiscate.”
“They [gun owners] want to keep the guns out of the hands of the bad guys, but they don’t have any regulations to do it.”
“They don’t care about the bad guys. All they want to do is have their little guns and do whatever they want with them.”
“That’s the line they’ve developed.”
The discussion appears to be among Senator Loretta Weinberg (D37), Senator Sandra Cunningham (D31), Senator Linda Greenstein(D14), and at least one member of Senate Democratic staff.
This discussion can also clearly be heard at the end of the official audio recording, beginning at 1:52:30, currently available here (find Thursday, May 9 from the menu, then click “listen”). It is possible that the official recording will be sanitized following release of this alert, and the official YouTube video could be deleted, so be sure to listen to it promptly.
The discussion reveals absolute contempt for the Second Amendment and those who exercise it, as well as complete ignorance of the fact that gun rights organizations like ANJRPC have long advocated for clear and specific legislation punishing criminals who misuse firearms, instead of misguided legislation (like the bills currently being pushed by Senate Democrats) that demonizes hardware. Senator Loretta Weinberg is the chief proponent of the anti-gun legislation being moved through the Senate.
In advance of Monday’s full Senate floor vote, please immediately call AND fax the Senate Majority Office, tell them you are outraged by the misguided, disparaging, and clueless comments of those pushing the anti-gun bill package, and demand that Senate Democratic leadership hold the entire package of anti-gun bills currently scheduled for consideration by the full Senate on Monday, May 13.
SENATE MAJORITY OFFICE
Phone: 609-847-3700
Fax: 609-633-7254
You know what would help prevent gun owners from always being paranoid that gun control activists and politicians were after their guns? Not actually being after our guns. Just because your paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.
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May 9, 2013
Posted by Sebastian in New Jersey | 7 comments
I don’t think it’s too much to ask, but apparently it is for Mayor Healey of Jersey City, New Jersey, a founding member of MAIG. This was a controversy back in the 2004 race, when a photo of him naked on his porch surfaced. He said he got a little too drunk, and didn’t remember how he got on his porch. Apparently now the story is changing:
Healy gave a fresh, and notably more bizarre, account in an interview with the Star-Ledger in which he claimed he had actually been drawn outside that night by a group of noisy Hispanic girls — who proceeded to rip off the towel he was wearing and do “filthy” things.
Well, OK then. It could probably be argued Healy’s problems are really nothing new, and that he is likely, as a founding member of MAIG, to be the original illegal mayor. But I thought this bizarre new twist on how he ended up naked on his porch was worth a mention.
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Apr 29, 2013
Posted by Bitter in New Jersey | 9 comments
It looks like the anti-gun groups are flying in non-residents in order to campaign for Democrats in New Jersey.
Let me repeat that.
The anti-gun groups in New Jersey are resorting to flying in Newtown, CT families in order to participate in Democratic campaign meetings and to lobby for gun control. This is New Jersey, it’s amazing they have to fly in outsiders to promote Democrats and make the state more anti-gun.
Of course, local gun owners are also planning to visit the State House and remind lawmakers who they really represent. Let us hope that these lawmakers remember that these Connecticut residents don’t vote in New Jersey.
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Apr 16, 2013
Posted by Sebastian in Gun Rights, New Jersey | 4 comments
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.
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Mar 19, 2013
Posted by Sebastian in Gun Rights, New Jersey | 10 comments
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.
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Mar 13, 2013
Posted by Sebastian in Gun Rights, New Jersey | 24 comments
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?
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Mar 4, 2013
Posted by Sebastian in Gun Rights, New Jersey | 8 comments
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.
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