Gun rights advocates showing their best 1000-yard stare as gun control bills clear JN Senate Committee (courtesy nj.com)

“It’s a matter of us all working together to ensure the safety and well-being of our families, our neighbors and our co-workers,” Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) pronounced. The occasion: Sweeeny’s Law and Public Safety Committee voted 3 – 1 vote to approve a package of seven gun control laws. “The ‘centerpiece’ bill (S2723) would overhaul the current system of IDs to buy firearms, encoding them onto driver’s license and putting in place a system to allow for instant background checks every time someone buys a gun,” nj.com reports. Wait. Doesn’t the FBI already do that? So is this like the reverse of double secret probation? Also passed . . .

Other bills would create a school security task force (S2724), disqualify those on the federal terrorism watch list from buying guns (S2485), declare violence a “public health crisis” (S2430), establish a 90-day window for people to turn in illegal guns (S2722), establish a school security task force (S2724) and require the state submit records of involuntary mental health commitment to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

Wait. How the hell is New Jersey going to get instant access to the FBI’s Terrorist Watch List? And do Garden State legislators seriously expect residents with “illegal weapons” (i.e. “assault weapons”) to register them and face confiscation?

“If you pass these laws that make me a criminal by not registering my guns, I will not register them,” said gun owner Glenn Darwell of Forked River. “If you make me a criminal I will stand once more and fulfill the constitution. If my blood is in the street it’s in your hands.”

I’ve said it before I’ll say it again: there will be tears before bedtime. Oh and there are ten more bills heading downstream including “banning the .50 caliber Barrett rifle (A3659), toughening penalties for gun trafficking (S2719) and barring state pension funds from investing in companies that manufacture or import assault rifles for civilian use (A3668).”

Not to mention a mag cap limit bill restricting ammunition magazines to 10 rounds. And any other damn thing they can think of.

Needless to say, the bloody shirt wavers were ecstatic (in their own deeply misguided way) at the bills’ progress. Barring a U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down New York’s SAFE Act and New Jersey’s whatever, the Garden State is a lost cause. Tell me I’m wrong.

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67 COMMENTS

  1. I would love to tell you that you’re wrong, unfortunately, you’re right. Those of us in NJ are behind enemy lines and it looks like we are in for a very long haul before things get better.

    Pathetic, just pathetic.

  2. Quit your crying…you voted them in! If you don’t like what they are doing, vote them out or recall.

    • Gramps makes a great point. If we can’t get these clowns out of office then we need to move; its really just that simple.

    • Actually, the people commuting to work in NYC and Philly voted them in. Without those two counties, this wouldn’t even be an issue in NJ.

  3. What do you expect from a blue state run by a Democrat Governor? Say what? He’s not a Democrat. Oh yeah, Right. He’s a Democrat with an (R) behind his name.

    • He’s a Northeast/Blue State Republican. What does that mean. Well, many–probably most–Republicans from the Northeast, those that are still around, grew up without firearms and understand them no better than their Democratic counterparts. They are also likely to be less socially conservative (IE support gay marriage and be agnostic to the pro-life/pro-choice arguments), although they are still more socially conservative than most democrats. On other issues, primarily fiscal conservatism and small, inactive government, low taxes, challenging unions etc, Christie and most Northeast Republicans are absolutely still in line with the rest of the country.
      The sad fact is that in the Northeast, and probably the much of the west coast as well, neither Republicans nor Democrats believe in the virtues of the 2nd Amendment and an armed society and in this they are in line with most of their constituents or they wouldn’t continue to be reelected. I say this as a conservative born in Connecticut who only learned the virtues of firearm ownership after I joined the military and subsequently moved to Texas. While I am now a 2nd Amendment absolutist, I know that of the remaining conservatives from where I grew up, of whom there are very few, most have never even held a firearm and wholly believe the lies of the mainstream media. So to say “just vote them out” is ignorant of demographics. Its just not in the cards when such a small percentage of the population is Republican, and a large portion–even majority–of Republicans are unfamiliar with firearms, have little concern about taking personal responsibility for their own safety, and aren’t the least bit concerned about defense against tyranny.
      As such, I see gun owners from states like New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut as having two, well three, options and none of them involve the possibility of voting the shmucks out of office. One, they can move. While I moved for the Military, I know I will never move back. Two, they can stay and follow the new rules and tool up the best they can with what is still legal while trying to change the prevailing public opinion. Or, three, they can break the law and hope not to get caught. I am tired of people who don’t know the demographics of the blue states saying nonsense like “its your fault. You voted them in.” Or, “just vote them out.” I am sure very few people reading this blog voted for them, so it is not their fault, and two, voting them out just is not going to happen in the near future.
      That is all

      • Just saying you(as in you all) voted them in is like saying we(as in the readers on this site) voted Obama in(yes some people did).

        I certainly didn’t vote for him, but look who’s president.

        This is the same reason I don’t say “we” when referring to what the government does. “I” did not invade the middle east. “I” am not inflating the value of the dollar away. So I won’t say “we” either.

        Hope that makes sense.

      • You’re absolutely right except that you can’t throw in the rural areas of either NJ or NY as anti-gun. Both are on a par with Pennsylvania – or even Virginia – and don’t blame them for this crap. It’s entirely the fault of the denizens of the slums of Camden, Newark and the upscale suburbs of the Philadelphia and NYC areas, just like everywhere else.

        The problem is that we are outnumbered by the “urban mobs” who don’t bother to even consider who is running but simply vote for the nearest machine politician – usually Democrat – who is supposedly “fighting for the people”.
        These types are determined to pass gun laws on a par with the rest of the world and only intensive political activity, lawsuits and court decrees will stop them.

  5. I think there is a chance some of it will get vetoed by Christie if he has any national ambitions. On one hand he’ll get to say; “Look I did something”, on the other hand he can say to base Republican voters “Hey I beat back the worst of it despite impossible odds.” Total coin-toss either way.

    • Christie threw away any chance of “national ambitions” when he did his photo op with obama after the hurricane!

      • You mean the way Romney threw away his ambitions by being pro-choice and pro-universal-health-care? Memories are short, and anything is possible in politics.

        • Those things were on a state level. Romney only had an effect on MA. Christie bleeped the who country and everyone saw it. Those memories are on tape and primary voters will never forget that.

        • Did Romney win? He got though the primary because he ran left of everyone else and was able to get the left wing of the Republican party to side with him well the baulk of the votes in the primary were split around everyone else. Romney largely won the primary by default he was the last one standing and he lost the election because many republican’s simple didn’t get out and vote for him.

          • Yes, he was the nominee. You’re right he never truly gained majority support, but he still won.

  6. Love the “I Will Not Comply” shirt in the front row. Good luck with that in NJ.

      • I took a day off of work to go to the hearing. Lots of people wearing that shirt today.

        I’d say “we” outnumbered the anti’s at least 2 to 1. The main room quickly filled up and I was in the overflow room where they simulcast the proceedings. Standing room only in there too.

        The Senate chairperson tried to keep everyone testifying to 2 minutes, but was certainly more aggressive with the tuner (and mute button) when people were opposing the bills.

        • Why am I not surprised that they wanted to hear the supporters of the bills but not the supporters of the 2nd A?…….

          • The trouble is that the voting was all determined in advance. The hearing was merely a formality. The committee was merely checking a box.

            I highly respect those who took a day off work to go down to Trenton. There have to be more effective methods, though, to influence the swing votes in state legislatures. The gun grabbers are lost causes, but the legislators in the middle could be more receptive. Any ideas for how to defend liberty in NJ?

            Perhaps at this point, though, it’s time for an all-out marketing effort aimed at the governor. If he can be persuaded to veto all the bills (apart from the ones he himself stupidly proposed), that should do the trick – this time around, anyway.

            In the long-term, the battle will be won or lost only through a sustained effort to reach out to people who have never put their hands on a gun – and through a sustained effort to wrench swing districts from Democratic hands.

        • Several people pointed out what a sham this hearing was during their testimony. Guess how long their microphone stayed on after that…

          One Senator did vote no on one of the bills to a loud round of applause (I think he stayed his vote on another, so he may have actually cared what was said throughout the day). The rest had their rubber “Yes” stamps in a quick draw holster.

    • Better judged by twelve than carried by six.
      I would like to take a ball-peen hammer to these gun-banning libtards jaws.

      • Unfortunately, that little maxim doesn’t really apply in NJ. If you want to protect yourself here outside your home, you have to break the law by carrying concealed. And it is more likely in NJ that you will be arrested for carrying than it is that you will end up using that gun to defend yourself. In other words, in that situation, it’s more likely you will be judged by 12 period, regardless whether you ever have to use your gun.

        This is the intimidation by law that the gun grabbers count on in NJ to dissuade citizens from making use of their right to self-defense.

  7. Time to let out the crooks, rapists and violent criminals out of prison so they can make room for the good people exercising their 2A rights. Heaven forbid they have a plastic or metal box with a spring in it that is too long! It’s for the children of course.

  8. is the logic as such?:

    We NEED asinine gun laws, so they can go to the Supreme Court and get shot down, so we can regain our freedom?

    The more asinine, the better.

    Correct? It’s very saddening, but horribly stupid laws ‘could’ be good. in theory.

    • I believe that this is what is going to happen soon in California.

      There is a bill (SB567) that will almost surely become law here that will make ALL semi-automatic handguns illegal by categorizing them as NFA-regulated short barreled shotguns. I can’t imagine that this will stand post-Heller, and could possibly lead to the challenging of the entire NFA.

      Another bill (SB374) will make all semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines illegal by categorizing them as assault weapons, even the Ruger 10-22. Perfect law to challenge “Assault Weapons” legislation.

      There are lots more asinine bills sleazing their way through the CA legislature right now. Hopefully this will lead to a Supreme Court showdown that will give us the legal precedents that we need to make all of these laws illegal.

      • Their strategy is to throw all the crap they can at us, in the (well-justified) hope that at least some of it will stick. Set precedents, and make it harder to legally own firearms. Even if particular laws are eventually struck down (after the SCOTUS broke both the law and their oaths of office by re-writing OBAMA care from the bench I’ll never have faith in the courts again), I just can’t see any new law that makes it harder for law-abiding citizens to own guns as anything but a loss.

  10. Yet another reason to never go to NJ. It was already it was already the lowest state on the “travel to” list. Pity

    • Personally, I would like to see the rural/small town areas of Jersey. Given the abismal state of their anti-human rights laws, it ain’t gonna happen anytime soon.

      • The rural parts and some of the southern coast of Jersey are gorgeous. I can see why they call it the garden state. They won’t get any more tourist dollars from me either they way they are going, though.

  11. In other news o is going to arm the Syrian rebels because “he doesn’t want to see them harmed”. I’m sure he will do the same for Joyse & uphold his oath, no?, I didn’t think so, Randy

  13. I would say derogatory things about New Jersey but It would not help the good people living there. I know we want the world to be a safer place, but it is too bad that misguided people are now in control and will make NJ an unfit place for honest gun owning citizens to live. It will not make the state any safer and by some measure it can make it less safe. Move over Chicago, we will soon have more resistance free areas for criminals to take advantage of innocent people in.

  14. Yay! Everybody in Camden, Newark and the rest of the New Jersey sewer system will now be safe!

  16. Hitler died on this date in 1945, and today the NJ Brown Shirts are shredding the Constitution. Nice

  17. As I’ve said in the past, New England is dead and they ate getting what they deserve for being democrats, to late to wake up now you idiots.

  20. Your Govenor is a fake.Knows how to chow down,but a loser.Sad,grew up across river and spent a lot of $$$ and time respecting the splendor of the shore and fishing.Not anymore,Delaware get’s my coin.Fascist state.

  21. I believe the majority of NJ, NY, CT and CO are getting exactly what they want and what they voted for. The same as the majority of the nation will when Obama Care whacks their bank accounts.

    For all the people in those states and the nation as a whole. My friends, we are screwed and there really just may be no hope left.

    • Let’s see what happens in 2014 and 2016. I heard a poll on the radio today that 42% of people didn’t know even Obama-care was the law. So, how many more people know it’s the law but don’t have a clue what to expect?

      Let’s see what happens when 10s of millions of middle class working stiffs get kicked out onto the exchanges because the medical plans they have always had are now considered luxury plans. At my company (and many of my friends’ companies) people have already been warned that basic HMO plans will fall in the luxury price range. Much cheaper to pay the penalty than to pay the surcharge on plans. So, when people start paying more than they did before for worse health care, let’s see how supportive they are of the Democratic party.

      • They wont blame the Democratic party just like they don’t blame the government for the high cost of Gas. They will blame the Health Care industry and the Democrats will call from more regulations to deal with those evil health care companys. That will cause rates to go up even more. Until everyone is force into government controlled health care. Progresses have a plan and it has worked in several country lets see if it can be stopped inside the US.

  23. Christie will throw NJ under the bus, which is kind of funny because whereas the bus will run right over NJ, it would have a hard time running over Christie :).

  25. Another state aching for true patriots to do as Thomas Jefferson and the spirit of the 2A demands they do with traitors and tyrants.

    But none will. Welcome to castrated modern America.

    • Please spell out what you would like those of us in NJ to do, in the spirit of Jefferson. A number of us are truly all ears.

      • Truthfully in all honesty, at this point…just get out. Nothing can save it. American society as a whole is spiraling in a leftist direction, with its vanguard in slave states like NJ, NY, and CA, and I really don’t see any way to stop it. Americans are being brainwashed to embrace their totalitarianism just as Italians and Germans did 75 years ago, and there’s no way to turn it around.

        Find a nice free state, move there, and try to salvage some happiness of whatever’s left in modern America. I was born and raised in NJ, moved four years ago, and haven’t looked back.

        For the record, I was referring to tar and feathering.

        • Silver pretty much nailed it, unfortunately. At this point, choose your state wisely.

          • For those of us who would like to fight rather than give up more ground, I think it is time to adopt stronger tactics, following the examples of both MLK Jr. and Malcolm X. Staging large rallies while wearing our (unloaded) guns could be an effective challenge, forcing the police to decide whether to let us exercise (partly) our liberty, or arrest us and reveal to the entire nation that the gungrabbers are willing to lock up hundreds of peaceful citizens and confiscate their guns from their homes. There are surely other similar steps we could take that show we will not be deterred in defending our liberty, and that we are peaceful while the legislators and bureaucrats are aggressors.

            But we still have to see whether Christie can be persuaded to veto these bills. I’m not hopeful on that score, but until the bills are law, it’s premature to take this sort of action.

      • untill you make a grammatical or ethical error, then “mother lover” will pounce on you with paddle and dunce cap.

  26. It’s in these dark and troubling times that I am able to say I have found a new reason to be happy I live in SC. The local government has been kicking around the idea of allowing open carry whether you have a permit or not. I don’t see this state having any sort of ban soon.

  27. I moved to PA bc NJ went from “suck” to “blow” a long time ago. I’m all for just pushing the whole state into the ocean… We could finally get some nice beach-front property here in PA!

  28. “approve a package”
    Somehow volumes of bloated legislation seem more exciting and quaint when called a “package”. I’ve noticed this a lot, and I dislike it.

  29. I was raised in NJ. Great State for many reason. Cummy State for one ,The State Government. It’s realy two different places. Northeast Jersey,(Sub of NYC), Southwest Jersey (Sub of Philly). The rest of the state is great, but there is where the # are and the votes, so all we get is are liberal leanings. I grew up in Plumsted twp, worked on dairy farms, bailed hay, went swiming at Colliers Mill Wma. The first handgun I ever fired came out of the Chief of Police’s holster. Great childhood. Grew up, moved to Pa. Had carry permit in 15mins. Great to live in America again.

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