Emily Miller notes they are at it again:
Thus, the experts found that at least 43 common rifles would suddenly be considered a prohibited “assault firearm,†such as the .22 caliber Marlin Model 60, Remington Nylon 66 and Winchester 190.
When New Jersey instituted its original Assault Weapons Ban back in the 90s during the Florio Administration, the Model 60 had a 17 round tube magazine standard. There were tons of these weapons in the hands of New Jersey gun owners, with their owners completely unaware they had an assault rifle that had to be registered. You still hear stories every once in a while of some poor fool getting pinched for having an unregistered early Model 60.
Marlin modified the rifle to only hold 15 rounds, but now it appears all those people who have compliant guns would be forced to register them as assault weapons, which most won’t because they would never imagine they own an “assault firearm” as they are classified in New Jersey Law. This will instantly create more felons, which is probably the idea.
If we can’t get a veto out of Christie for this, he might as well just decide not to run for President right now.
Yet one more example of how they are coming for our guns, despite saying over and over again they aren’t.
I think we are seeing a pattern with Christie. He will create an emergency and then swoop in and solve it.
He – in concert with Cuomo – arranged to have the Port Authority propose a $4 increase in bridge tolls between NJ and NYC. He then swooped in – with Cuomo – and said, “No way…that is outrageous!”
And everybody was so happy when the tolls only went up $2. Some recent digging by a newspaper found 5 of the six PA people behind the scheme and they completely ratted out both governors. They said the original proposed rate increase was a sham to create something so bad that people would be happy to only see their tolls go up $2. The numbers were locked in on day one; they just manufactured the emergency so both governors could out out looking good. They say they have emails with the staff of both governors, proving they were cooking up the outrage in order to sneak things in they could not otherwise get.
Everyone thinks New Jersey Dems don’t want Christie to be President because of his party affiliation. Perhaps some care. But everything up there is connection-based and who knows who. Given the choice between arms-length Clinton and I-grew-up-with-you Christie, I can bet that many statehouse Dems in NJ would much prefer to have someone they know in the oval office. I am sure the Dem leadership would be all too happy to give him something to veto, to make gunnies feel better about him next year. Then they get a friend in the White House.
This ain’t Kansas.
Some folks from New Jersey can probably chime in here and correct me if I am wrong. My “New Jersey/New York” living is a little out of date, but I suspect some things never change.
My experience: I grew up in one of the bigger New York cities (not NYC) and met the mayor’s chief of staff on a high school field trip. He liked me, and it turns out his father knew my grandfather. He dragged me around city hall and showed me some stuff and introduced me to some people.
He knew I was a poor kid, and could not afford the school I wanted to go to. He told me to come work for him at $30K a year (out of high school in the early 90s) and then he’d get me into a good school on scholarship. He said I should take a year or two to “understand how the world works” and take classes part-time. I could study while working.
I thought it sounded great but didn’t know my foot from my ass. I didn’t think much of it once I went back to school. I got into a cheap state school pursuing liberal arts (I hated the school but ya get what you can pay for).
One month before graduation came a thick manilla envelope with an application filled out and the job title as “Mayor’s Assistant”. Salary was a little less than $30k. I thanked him but moved on…and kicked my own ass for that choice about three months later.
I know this scene plays out in other places, but through other people I learned that it happens regularly in New York and neighboring states. One of my best friends as a kid was the son of a state lawmaker that I met in school (our school bridges different sides of the tracks, you could say). They don’t conceal any of this stuff. They openly talk it out.
The idea that Christie in the White House is anathema to a NJ Dem Leadership is so foreign to me that you might as well be talking about Kiev.
I don’t trust any of those people, and won’t trust any “record” that any governor up there can manufacture. I know this is not unique to the region, but I think it is more ingrained. I see first hand the lawmakers in Maryland trying to do this kind of stuff, and it’s bush league the whole way down. They don’t have the history and they think political party matters. In some ways, I respect their corruption for at least being partisan.
And yes…I shoulda’ cancelled my first year of college and taken the damn job.
EDIT: The mayor of this city went to prison about ten years after this incident, for corruption. I think the Chief of Staff got off clean.