In New Jersey, you apparently get a gentle slap on the wrist for beating your wife, but they’ll send you to prison for five years for accidentally transporting a legal firearm through their state.
Does that seem right to you?
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I’m not sure but, even with mandatory guidelines & whatever; any judge, in any courtroom can throw out a verdict or ultimately do as they please – with the risk being censor or worse. Who would question the judge’s verdict in this case if he were to throw the case out. In a courtroom, the judge rules, rightly or wrongly. There are judges who do this all the time across the country, especially when a jury comes out with a totally ridiculous verdict, contrary to the evidence or commonsense.
If you live in Los Angeles and you drive to Las Vegas on vacation, you don’t get arrested and prosecuted for driving without a Nevada license. With concealed carry licenses, though, the concept of reciprocity goes down the drain.
If Shaneen Allen were a terrorist or a mugger, then Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would be in New Jersey organizing protest marches (i.e., inciting riots) by now. Obama and Holder would be accusing the local police of racial profiling. And every coffee shop intellectual in New York and every limousine liberal in Hollywood would be tweeting “Free Shaneen!”
If she is convicted, even if she gets probation or a suspended sentence, she will still be a convicted felon, and will lose certain rights, including the right to own a weapon. Meanwhile, Ray Rice is allowed to enroll in a diversion program, which will enable him to evade a felony conviction.
In Jersey, if you are a celebrity, a politician, or a gangster, you get a free pass. If you are a hard-working, honest citizen, they throw the book at you.
It’s like Lily Tomlin said: No matter how cynical you get, it’s impossible to keep up.
There are perfectly-legal — and Federally protected ways — to transport guns through New Jersey. The lady in question was illegally carrying a loaded concealed weapon while in New Jersey, an entirely different proposition.
There are no legal civilian concealed weapons in New Jersey, period.
It wasn’t a “mistake”, she broke the law here.
Even NJ residents can’t carry loaded weapons around. You can ONLY transport an unloaded weapon, in a locked case, locked in your car’s trunk directly from your home to a range or gunsmith or hunting location, and back….no stops in-between. No loaded or unloaded gun in your car while you’re at work. No stopping at McDonald’s on your way back from the range. Definitely no driving around town with your shotgun gun-raked in your pickup truck’s rear window.
I don’t support this, nor agree with it — but that’s the law until we get it changed.
And I expect that NJ will never accept out-of-state CCW permits since NJ residents are barred from getting them in the first-place. We have a two-tiered system where first you need a firearms permit to purchase a long-gun, and a separate additional handgun-purchase permit that you have to apply for a get approved for EACH HANDGUN you purchase in NJ as a resident. No out-of-state resident can purchase a handgun here (that’s NJ and Federal law), and I can only purchase a long-gun in an adjacent state (Federal law) if I have a valid NJ firearms permit here. And with NJ being bracketed by the illegal gun-capitals of the East Coast — NYC and Philadelphia — I don’t see it liberalizing any-time soon.
Now if you are on the Interstate just transiting through NJ to a destination in another state, Federal law allows you to do so provided your unloaded firearms are locked in your trunk separate from your ammunition.
And the convoluted laws Ted outlines for us were brought about to try and curb organized crime. So, just how well is that well working out for NJ?
Most gun laws are like locks on your doors, they only keep honest people out.
Ted has summed up Life in the Garden State pretty well. Bear in mind that all persons in the State of New Jersey are assumed to be felons at all times unless proven otherwise in a court of law (and then only for the specific charges named in that instance), with enforcement purely at the discretion of Law Enforcement, the Prosecutor’s Office, and the Courts. The specific actions of a defendant and the text of the laws doesn’t really figure in, as both can and will be reinterpreted to suit the whims of those acting on behalf of the State.
This story is still evolving, but so far:
1) Yes, she violated the literal text of our extremely Draconian laws, ironically by deliberately acting in a way that she thought to be specifically lawful (alerting an LEO of her permit and carry weapon), which in many parts of the US would be either a good idea or an actual law.
2) The prosecutor on the case has refused to use any sort of discretion in mitigating her crime, seeming intent on prosecuting her to the maximum extent possible, which legally would mean a mandatory 3 year minimum sentence when she is convicted, without a viable mechanism for any judge to reduce that minimum.
3) In NJ, there are very few judges who would “Throw the case out.” In fact, quite the opposite is true: In a number of prior cases, judges have specifically prevented juries from hearing either testimony or even the text of state statutes that could be used as a defense — remember that you’re already guilty unless you can find and prove that one of these narrowly defined “Exceptions” applies to you.
Given how the Art of gerrymandering is at it’s zenith (last November every single seat of both houses of the State legislature was up for election, and exactly one seat changed party in the whole state), no, it won’t be changing soon.
This is more about wealth and fame-if Rice was driving through New Jersey under the same conditions as Allen I am willing to bet he prosecutor would have reduced charges for him just like he did for the domestic abuse (which knocked out his the fiancé). See Gregory for prosecutor discretion where a gun law was vated but no charges filed. He got the wealth/fame treatment.
That said there is no reason for this woman to go to prison-what good does it serve the state of New Jersey or anyone else? This is why gun laws are ridiculous. They often punish the innocent while the criminals run free with their illegal guns and cause havoc in the state.
My view of the law is very libertarian, if there is no victim, there is no crime. As no one is harmed by the mere act of transporting a weapon, there is no reason for that to be illegal.
Two reasons why Chris Christe must not be the Republican nominee for President in 2016. When will lawmakers learn that gun control has no impact on violent crime. That’s why those that have them are called criminals. I don’t know if it was Sarah Palin who said it first; that a gun in the hand of a good guy is the best protection against the gun in the hand of a bad man. If Governor Christie has any pretensions to mount a presidential campaign he better start by defending our Second Amendment right to bear arms.
V, J-M, you guys wouldn’t last a week here in the PRNJ. She has to go to prison, that’s the whole point. It serves the state because it maintains a level of terror among the commoners to keep them in line. Case in point, Ted is wrong: It is perfectly legal to carry a concealed handgun in NJ. With a state issued permit. That’s only issued to state residents. That no one has because anyone who asks for one will not only be denied but will be branded with that denial which they will spend the rest of their lives explaining every time anyone wants to deny them anything for any reason. Unless they know someone. Even private security guards are told to call 911 and wait for help if they get into a fight.
Mr. Christie is far from being a perfect defender of our freedoms, but he is hands down orders of magnitude better than any alternatives from the past and next decade. At least he has vetoed making a lot of our terrible laws far worse, and he has occasionally gotten some of our past victims out of prison, even if he didn’t always burn off their Felon tattoos.
Govt has no power over good people that’s why it trys to make as many bad as possible.
In other news UK paper is willing to do a story about a discount Paki version of Marc Singer
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2739799/Why-millions-Pakistani-children-falling-prey-vicious-paedophiles.html
“‘Once, there was a boy on the bus and everyone had sex with him,’ confesses Ijaz who admits to raping 12 different children during his career as a bus conductor. ‘I did it too but what else could I do? They invited me” sounds like when you talk about the rapes in the Katrina dome and vibrants make excuses for them.
And the problem with gun control laws is that the criminals don’t obey them but law abiding citizens are turned into criminals.
Ms Allen wasn’t robbing a convienient store or threatening to hurt anyone. She had a gun in her possession that was carried and stored legally in her home state but not for NJ.
This is a case tailor made for prosecutorial discretion but she’s being prosecuted as if she was a criminal out to cause harm.
Anarcho-tyranny.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_T._Francis#Anarcho-tyranny
Going after kids https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/310387180/flamingo-rampant-book-club
Catholic Notre Dame does gender studies http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=5886
“ask [the high schoolers] to explain how they know for sure whether they are male or female.” They will have TSA agents check.
I saw Dejon Sanders Ex wife on, I think CNN with another NFLex wife talking about their abuse. Shouldn’t there be an investigation into all these ex sports and media talking heads and see who had done what to their spouses and girlfriends? Ray Lewis was charged with accessory to murder yet the media hired him. AND he was asked to comment on R Rice… I mean come on….