Category: All About Guns

The measure slated as A4769 and S3214 carves out a long list of new “don’ts” when it comes to carry in the Garden State. Cam recently covered an editorial lauding the measure, which in reality the Star Ledger, the paper that put out that schlock, basically ran propaganda for president wannabe Governor Phil Murphy.

The alleged purpose of the bill, outlined below, is greatly overshadowed by the extreme incompetence of lawmakers in the Garden State. The Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs (ANJRPC) recently uncovered an embarrassing flaw in the bill.

In the lawmakers’ haste to sever citizens from their civil liberties, they overlooked something that’s splashed an omelette’s worth of egg onto their faces.

From an alert earlier this month from ANJRPC, the proposal would do the following, to mention some of the awful provisions:

• Ban carry in common public places by labeling them as “sensitive places” (plainly forbidden by Bruen)
• Ban carry inside one’s own car (plainly forbidden by Bruen)
• Ban carry on commercial and private property, unless the property owner posts notices allowing it (plainly unconstitutional)
• Massively increase fees for permits (plainly forbidden by Bruen, and discriminates against low-income citizens)
• Mandate special insurance (which may not even be available) as a pre-condition to exercise constitutional rights (plainly unconstitutional)
• Mandate a new, unusual training requirement (beyond the already-difficult one that has existed for decades) – raises serious constitutional questions.

When news of this bill broke, Scott Bach, the Executive Director of ANJRPC rightfully asserted:

These attacks by New Jersey lawmakers are a big middle finger to the U.S Supreme Court. These lawmakers have no respect for the Constitution or the rule of law – they focus on attacking citizens’ rights while setting violent criminals free. We look forward to overturning these measures in court and forcing the state to pay our legal fees.

This is a bad bill, overall. While this not only is going to affect the law abiding gun owner that wishes to exercise their carry rights, this measure will also affect everyone. This bill is going to have no favoritism to political party or ideologies on individual liberties. The legislature, hot and heavy to stick it to the peasants, unknowingly banned the possession of anything that could possibly be a weapon from the sensitive places they’ve carved out.

When discussing the “sensitive places” that the bill defines, the sponsor of the Assembly version, Assemblyman Joe Danielsen could not answer during committee meetings the direct question of, “Where can people carry under these guidelines?” Danielsen, because of this bill is in my opinion, the 2nd biggest jackass in politics in the Garden State. He refused to give a list of where one would be allowed to exercise their right to carry.

The reason Danielsen did not give an answer is because under this policy there’s essentially nowhere people can carry. Well, that or he really is as stupid as he seems when he opens his mouth, but that does not change the fact there’s close to zero places that are noted as not senstive places by default.

The dem’s did a fine job in picking Danielsen as their champion on this matter. Instead of finding the strongest in their flock, they seemingly picked one of the weakest, and it was downright embarrassing listening to him try to answer simple questions about the bill he allegedly wrote. He did not write this bill, there’s no way.

If you’d like to view one of the committee hearings on the bill and get to see Danielsen get mopped up by those who oppose the measure, you can HERE. Of course TWO Assembly committees voted in favor for this measure, even after Danielsen’s inability to speak intelligently about the bill, or how this affects criminals (or rather only the law abiding), was on full display.

The hub-bub over sensitive places is important, because as ANJRPC pointed out, firearms are not the only things banned from these places. These places were hastily defined, and the following items would also be prohibited on those premises:

Bans Hundreds of Common Tools Used Throughout Society

• Bans Knives in Restaurants, Scalpels in Hospitals, Utility Knives Everywhere
• Bans Axes, Hammers, Screwdrivers, Nail Guns, Heavy Tools
• Bans Baseball Bats, Hockey Sticks, Golf Clubs
• Bans Mops, Brooms, Bricks, Lumber
• Bans Chainsaws, Free Weights, Tire Irons
• Bans Pens & Pencils
• Bans Anything That Can Be Misused to Inflict Serious Harm

Looking at ANJRPC’s explanation, we can quickly see how they arrived at that conclusion:

In their now-infamous list of contrived “sensitive places” (used as an excuse to ban carry everywhere), they banned “weapons” generally instead of limiting the ban to “handguns.”   The distinction between the two terms is immense under New Jersey law, and as it now stands, the legislation prohibits and criminalizes hundreds of common every-day tools and implements used in every facet of society.  The legislation bans them in all “sensitive places” – essentially everywhere.

N.J.S. 2C:39-1(r) defines “weapon” as “anything readily capable of lethal use or of inflicting serious bodily injury. . . . “It doesn’t ACTUALLY have to be used lethally or to inflict serious injury – it only has to be CAPABLE of that to qualify as a “weapon.” It’s a thoughtless and nonsensical definition to begin with, demonizing tools themselves rather than those who misuse them.  But that’s the “wisdom” of lawmakers in the Garden State, it’s the law here, and the chickens have now come home to roost on that one.

It’s actually downright humorous that the Assembly is going to have to decide if they want to vote in favor of this, or send it back to committee. The Senate is going to have to address this, I imagine, which is going to cause the need for reconciliation anyhow. That means that hopefully good ole Danielsen is going to have to grace us with his stunning linguistics again, as he stammers his way out of why he put this measure into his bill. I think we are all owed that performance, at a minimum. Watch a weasel, weasel.

New Jersey lawmakers have outdone themselves, and in the process proven the sheer absurdity of their handgun carry ban by extending it to common, everyday objects that “could” be misused. Now that the general public is being victimized by the same mindless rules that have been weaponized against honest gun owners for decades, perhaps they will begin to understand how gun owners have long been persecuted merely for wanting to exercise a Constitutional right.

Now that we’ve let out the captain’s secret here, there’s some other noteworthy things that need to be pointed out concerning this bill and the hearings.

One of the measures dictates that a holster one uses must have a retention strap, and that holster must be attached to the body. This limits women (and men) from being able to use off-body carry in something like a purse. When grilled on this fact, Danielsen took offense to the insinuation of him being sexist over it. Well, he was being sexist. During his remarks he said, with hubris, that women have far more carry options than men. He muttered something about having a website to show everyone on the subject. What was he talking about? Who knows what kind of web sites Danielsen goes to.

Not only is Danielsen, in my opinion, sexist for having this requirement in his bill, he’s also ableist. What if someone is not able to wear a holster, for whatever reason, and had to resort to off-body carry? How about someone with limited mobility that’s not agile enough to access conventional holsters and where they are placed on body normally? We could go on for hours discussing the possibilities here.

What about fanny packs or back packs designed for carry? Not good enough for Danielsen. The holster requirement also would preclude pocket carry. What about the thousands of people that wish to carry in a pocket holster? There are no retention straps for those either.

In discussing Danielsen’s ableist mentality, when he was asked about disqualifiers due to physical handicap, he proudly and belligerently said that someone that’s completely blind should not be allowed to have a permit to carry. In his bill the physically disabled and or handicapped can be denied a permit to carry, without there being a list of objective standards. This is beyond discriminatory, especially in the Garden State. Why a completely blind person should be “allowed” to have a carry permit is for the same reasons anyone else should be “allowed”, because it’s a Constitutional right. Further, in New Jersey, one must be in possession of a permit to carry in order to possess a handgun outside of a narrow group of exemptions.

What if we have someone that’s blind and is a gun collector? What if they were not born blind and they have all these firearms? Does it even matter if someone was born abled or not? Are the differently abled not afforded the same liberties of the abled in New Jersey because of this? Or, just because someone is disabled they SHALL be relegated to the narrow list of possession exemptions in the Garden State when those with permits are at least allowed to carry where there’s an affirmative permission? We can go ten rounds on this. Gun collecting, inheritance, and yes, shooting, all some of the many things the blind can and do do, but not outside of the narrow possession exemptions because Danielsen said so.

In my opinion Danielsen’s bill is both sexist towards women and discriminatory against the handicapped, besides being unconstitutional. It’s also his own special was to tell the Supreme Court they’re wrong and he’s smarter than them.

What can we do? Most importantly, we can write to and or call the full set of New Jersey’s legislators. Let them know what you think. Live out of state? Not a problem! There are non-resident permits to carry in NJ, and this will affect you too in due time should you wish to get one. And I encourage out-of-staters to apply for their permits to carry, by the millions. If you have a permit to carry in your own state, just as an exercise of patriotism and in solidarity to Garden Staters, you should go to New Jersey to apply for a permit.

In wake of an announcement of the upcoming Senate committee meeting on October 27th, and the Assembly brining this measure to a full vote, I sent the public masters the following love letter:

Lawmakers:

I’m going to keep this short and to the point. The US Supreme Court has made the law of the land known. By voting for this measure A4769/S3214, you’re going to be no better than Governor George Wallace, who stood in the schoolhouse doorway. In essence, you’ll be saying you don’t care about infringing on peoples’ civil rights.

Lawmakers, members of the judiciary, and executives that have gone against Supreme Court Rulings in the past have all been on the wrong side of history. Those that aim to disarm the population have all been on the wrong side of history. I won’t bother to explain how bad this egregious bill is…How unconstitutional. But I will say that a vote in favor of this measure will connect your name to an ugly footnote in history.

Put politics aside, ignore Governor Phil Murphy’s requests, and do the right thing by voting against this bill.

Regards,
John Petrolino
www.thepenpatriot.com

I invite everyone to write in their sentiments too. Remember to be respectful and point out how bad this bill is. You can find the full list of email addresses for New Jersey’s lawmakers HERE. If there’s ever been a time to act, this is it. We, as a united front of patriots, must keep the pressure on those that think they’re bigger than the Constitution by letting our voices be heard. Let them know how comfortable Danielsen looks being ideologically arm in arm with Governor George Wallace…Telling SCOTUS to buzz off, while infringing on civil liberties.

For an entertainingly long list provided by ANJRPC of other items that would be banned under Danielsen’s bill, give a look below:

• KNIVES & CUTLERY Steak knives in restaurants, scalpels in hospitals, utility knives used by tradesmen, cutlery in the kitchen, cutlery in stores and supermarkets, pocket knives, pen knives, Swiss army knives, multi-tools, and the like.
• AXES, CHAINSAWS, HAND-SAWS & WOOD CHIPPERS No more tree services, utility work, firemen’s tools, post-storm tree clearing, or firewood creation.
• COMMON HAND TOOLS No more hammers, screwdrivers, awls, wrenches, drills, nail guns, hand-saws, power-saws, or the like in “sensitive places.”.  They’re all banned.
• SPORTS EQUIPMENT No more baseball bats, golf clubs, hockey sticks, lacrosse equipment, hard balls, or pucks, specifically forbidden in schools, stadiums and arenas, in addition to everywhere else.  No hockey sticks for the NJ Devils.
• ROCKS, STICKS, MASONRY, LUMBER Better not have bricks or lumber in public places, or in private places without the written permission of the owner.  Better not touch any stones or fallen tree branches.
• WEIGHTS & GYM EQUIPMENT No more free weights, dumbbells, barbells, or training equipment that could be used to injure someone.  Nope, not in “sensitive places.”
• SCISSORS & SEWING EQUIPMENT No more scissors, needles, knitting tools, or related equipment in “sensitive places.”  If you live in an apartment, you’d better get the landlord’s written consent first if you don’t want to go to jail.
• CHAINS, TIRE IRONS, LUG WRENCHES Obviously, these are evil instruments that should be banned in a “civilized society.”  Lug wrenches on school buses to change flat tires prohibited.
• ROPES, WIRES & POWER CORDS Can be used to strangle.
• GLASS BOTTLES, FLASHLIGHTS, PIPES & TUBES Can be used as blunt objects to strike someone.
• CAUSTIC, TOXIC & ACIDIC SUBSTANCES Janitors kill. So do lab scientists. And painters. They all must be stopped to protect the public.
• LANDSCAPING TOOLS Pruners, hedge trimmers, limb cutters, shovels, rakes, saws, post-diggers, machetes, fencing materials.
• SLEDGEHAMMERS, PICKAXES, HEAVY TOOLS Banned in “sensitive places” (that is, everywhere).
• PROPANE TORCHES & LIGHTERS Can be used to set lethal fires.
• MOPS & BROOMS Their wooden or metallic sticks can be used as weapons.
• PENS & PENCILS They can be used to stab someone.

For some excellent footage of Assemblyman Brian Bergen, who spoke in opposition of the bill, you can watch him lay the smack-down on the measure, by clicking HERE, HERE, and HERE, or check out the embeds below.

And I thought California was fornicated up! Grumpy