New Jersey Gun Control News

from Reuters:

New Jersey gun control bill passes Assembly, heads to governor's desk

(Reuters) - The New Jersey state Assembly on Thursday sent Governor Chris Christie a gun control bill that would limit the capacity of gun ammunition magazines, but it was unclear whether the Republican governor would sign the measure into law.
Christie, widely perceived as a possible White House contender in 2016, has a mixed record on gun control and has given no indication of his plans for the measure.
The bill, approved in the Assembly by a 44-34 vote, would cut the maximum capacity of gun magazines to 10 from 15.

Gun control groups say it could save lives.
"No law abiding citizen needs 15-round magazines," said Bryan Miller, executive director of the anti-violence group Heeding God's Call.
"In mass shootings, the shooter is overwhelmed at the point he has to re-load," he said. "That provides the rest of us opportunities to stop the carnage."

New Jersey to Punish Gun Theft More Severely

nj dot com

Those convicted of stealing guns in New Jersey would be more likely to face prison time under bipartisan legislation that was introduced Thursday.

Under New Jersey law, third-and fourth-degree crimes, which includes the theft of items under $75,000, carry a “presumption of non-imprisonment” for first-time offenders. The bill (A2916) would strip away that presumption for someone convicted of stealing a firearm.

“When you take that out, there’s a presumption that there would be incarceration,” said state Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Mercer), a sponsor.

Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick (R-Union), another sponsor, said stolen guns are often used in violent crimes.

“This act is more serious than stealing property. This bill sends a message to criminals that they will face severe consequences for stealing a firearm,” Bramnick said. “This is a necessary step to help curb the incidence of violent crime.”

“I think this is a gun right-left alliance on gun control,” Gusciora said. “We want guns off the streets and they want guns off the streets.”

Is that true?  Is that something both sides can agree upon - even the hyper-contentious gun-control fanatics who comment around here?

How about the problem of gun owners who do not secure their guns and thereby make gun theft easier?  Even New Jersey, known for its strict gun control has some weak-ass type of safe storage law. It should go much further.

New Jersey's Magazine Capacity Limitation

State Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester 


North Jersey dot com

It was billed as a brave milestone in the political evolution of Democratic Senate President Stephen Sweeney.

The burly ironworker, who represents a semirural South Jersey district where hunting is popular and Second Amendment rights are venerated, was now switching from powerful foe to fierce advocate of reducing the capacity of ammunition magazines to 10 rounds rather than the 15 allowed under state law.

“I gotta tell you, when you meet families that have lost their loved ones, it’s pretty hard to explain why you can’t do a simple thing like this,” Sweeney said at a Feb. 24 news conference, his eyes welling with tears as family members of children murdered by a lone gunman at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., stood nearby.

Yet there was nothing simple about Sweeney’s announcement, and to the Sandy Hook family members and gun control advocates, nothing all that surprising. In April, when Sweeney publicly declared his opposition to the lower capacity limit — dooming any chance of passage in the Senate — he privately endorsed the idea in a meeting with the families and gun control advocates.

“He said it was a good idea and at the appropriate time he would introduce it and now he has,” said Mark Barden, whose son Daniel was among the 26 victims at Sandy Hook.

Now, it seems the appropriate time has come — for Sweeney’s political career.

Freed from having to worry about antagonizing gun rights groups after winning reelection in November in what was likely his last legislative race, Sweeney announced his support when it was safe. And given his ambitions of running for governor in a pro-gun-control state, the switch was a pragmatic pivot to the left.

Scotch Plains NJ Shooting Now Considered Not Accidental - Shooter Charged

Local news reports

Police have filed charges against 28-year-old Robert Dietz following the shooting at 1988 Church Ave. in Scotch Plains on Tuesday morning, Feb. 18. 

According to Union County Prosecutor's Office spokesperson Mark Spivey, the defendant is charged with third-degree aggravated assault, fourth-degree pointing a loaded firearm at another person, and fourth-degree possession of a high-capacity magazine. 

A search of the home resulted in the seizure of 92 firearms, and many of the seized weapons were legally owned and registered. 

The victim, also named Robert Dietz, 65, was rushed to University Hospital in Newark following the shooting and since has been treated and released.

New Jersey Man Shoots Himself in the Leg - No Charges

Jefferson Patch

Jefferson Police report a 73-year-old man apparently shot himself accidentally last weekend.

According to a department report, at about 11:40 p.m., Officer Rich Reina 
responded to Bear Drive for a report of a serious, but not life-threatening gunshot wound. Once there, Reina learned that resident Charles Johnson was handling his .45 caliber handgun when it accidentally discharged and hit him in the upper leg.

Milton First Aid Squad took Johnson to Morristown Memorial Hospital for treatment. 

Detectives determined that Johnson was trying to check the gun's condition. The man thought the weapon did not have a clip in it, and it didn't, but there was a bullet in the chamber and it accidentally  discharged. 

Police said that because the investigation was deemed accidental, no charges were expected to be filed.

I guess I can't blame this one on the lax attitudes towards guns and gun laws. I suppose it goes to show that even in places like NJ and CA, they don't treat gun negligence as they should.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Father of 4-Year-old Toms River Boy Who Shot and Killed his 6-Year-old Friend is Indicted

Brandon Holt, 6, pictured here, was shot and killed in April when his 4-year-old neighbor allegedly picked up a rifle belonging to his father, Anthony Senatore, 33, of Toms River. Senatore was indicted Wednesday on six counts of child endangerment. (Saed Hindash/The Star-Ledger)

nj dot com further to our earlier report

The father of a 4-year-old Toms River boy who allegedly shot and killed his 6-year-old friend while the two were playing earlier this year was indicted today on six counts of child endangerment, prosecutors said.

An Ocean County grand jury returned the indictment against Anthony Senatore, 33, acting Atlantic County Prosecutor Jim McClain said in a statement.

On April 8, Brandon Holt was playing "pretend shooting" with Senatore’s 4-year-old son, neighbors and prosecutors have said.

Senatore’s little boy ran into his parents’ bedroom and emerged moments later with a .22-caliber rifle. He went outside where Brandon was sitting in a golf cart.

The rifle, authorities said, fired. Brandon was shot in the head.

The boy’s father was arrested the following month, charged with endangering the welfare of a minor. The indictment brought no new charges. Senatore faces five counts of second-degree child endangerment, one count of third-degree child endangerment and a disorderly persons offense.

The charges allege that in addition to the loaded .22 caliber rifle used to fire the fatal shot, a Stevens 12-gauge shotgun, two Harrington & Richardson shotguns and a Remington 12-gauge shotgun were all found unsecured, in close proximity to ammunition and accessible to Senatore’s children, ages 12, 8 and 4.

Under New Jersey law, residents do not need to register rifles but do need a gun purchaser’s identification card to buy them.

Anyone who knows that a child younger than 16 could gain access to a loaded firearm in the home can be charged with a disorderly persons offense if they fail to secure the weapon or install a trigger lock.

Other States Hamper N.J.'s Tough Gun Laws

North Jersey dot com

Under New Jersey law, Robert Leonardis is exactly the kind of person who never should own a gun. And the .45-caliber handgun police say he fired, nearly killing a Hackensack police officer, never should have wound up in the state.

Leonardis is a member of the Sex, Money, Murder set of the Bloods gang with a long criminal record, according to police. On July 22 he allegedly opened fire on three Hackensack police officers, missing Officer Joseph Ayoubi by inches.

Like most guns used for crimes in New Jersey, the handgun Leonardis used was trafficked illegally from another state, police say. His gun was mailed from Florida via UPS, said Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli.

New Jersey’s gun laws have long been and remain among the toughest in the nation. But almost every day, New Jersey residents are shot and killed in gun crimes. Statistics indicate that the vast majority of those cases involve guns purchased in other states and transported to New Jersey illegally.

Of more than 2,000 guns used in New Jersey crimes that were traced to their state of origin, fully 80 percent originated elsewhere, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). More than half — 55 percent — were imported from just seven states: Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida and Ohio, all of which have weaker gun-control laws than New Jersey.

That fact of life hampers efforts in New Jersey to limit the number of guns illegally on the street. The importance of state law is seen in states that take a more lax approach to gun control. In Pennsylvania and Florida, for instance, 79 percent of all crime guns originate in the same state as the crime, according to the ATF.

New Jersey Police Officer Held on $1M Bail in Alleged Road Rage Shooting

Joseph Walker (inset) has been charged in the shooting death of 36-year-old Joseph Harvey Jr. on a Maryland highway.

Local news reports

A New Jersey police officer is being held on $1 million bail after he was charged with shooting and killing a man on a Maryland highway in an alleged road rage incident.

Forty-year-old Joseph Walker, a sworn officer with the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office, was charged with second degree murder and manslaughter after a shooting 36-year-old Joseph Harvey, Jr. Saturday on an off-ramp on Interstate 97 near Millersville, according to Maryland State Police.

Police say the off-duty officer reportedly got into an argument with Harvey shortly after 8:30 p.m. while both men were driving on the interstate in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Investigators say both men pulled over on the shoulder of the highway. Harvey got out of his car, along with his passenger, and starting walking towards Walker’s minivan.

Maryland State Police say Walker fired a .45 caliber Glock at Harvey and hit him. Harvey was pronounced dead at Baltimore Washington Medical Center.

Police say the officer’s wife and three children were in his car at the time of the shooting. Walker is being held at the Anne Arundel County Detention Center.

Police are investigating the shooting.

Now wait a minute, I thought someone approaching you in a threatening manner was considered lethal threat.  Does that only count in Florida and other Stand-your-ground states?

Regardless, this is simply another example of a good guy with a gun acting very badly. It's a lot more common than the pro-gun folks would have us believe.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

New Jersey Hostage Taker Dead

Yahoo News reports

Police stormed a New Jersey home early Sunday and fatally shot a registered sex offender who had held his girlfriend's three children hostage, ending their 37-hour ordeal and recovering the bodies of the captives' mother and another sibling, authorities said.

They found 38-year-old Gerald "Skip" Tyrone Murphy in an upstairs bedroom and he told them he was armed with a gun and explosives and had three children with him, Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph L. Bocchini Jr. said. Officers noticed one of the dead victims before they retreated from the second floor and rescued Stevens' 19-year-old son from the basement, who said he hadn't seen her or his siblings since about April 24.

Murphy had a long criminal history including convictions for aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy, Bocchini said. He had previously been arrested for robbery and weapons offenses and child endangerment. He also had an arrest warrant in Pennsylvania for failing to register as a sex offender.

6-Year-old Toms River, New Jersey Boy Killed by a 4-Year-old with Daddy's Rifle

Brandon Holt, who died earlier today after being shot by a neighbor, in a Facebook photo.

NJ.com

The 6-year-old boy accidentally shot in the head by his 4-year-old neighbor has died, authorities said.
Brandon Holt died tonight at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune.

Authorities said today Brandon and a 4-year-old neighbor were playing in the younger boy’s backyard Monday night when the pre-schooler went in his house, brought out a loaded .22-caliber rifle and shot the older boy in the head.

Another neighbor said police removed several other weapons from the younger boy’s home.
Police were investigating, among other things, whether the adults in the house were legally permitted to own the rifle.

No charges have been filed but the investigation continues. The case has been transferred to the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office because of a potential conflict of interest with a relative of the 4-year-old boy having a job in Ocean County law enforcement, authorities said.

It's hard to understand why an investigation would need to continue. The homeowners who were responsible for those guns should already be in the slammer.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Citizens of New Jersey Agree

NJ.com

A new poll released by Mayors Against Illegal Guns makes some bold claims about support for universal background checks in New Jersey — namely, that in some areas, the support itself is nearly universal. 

In New Jersey's 4th congressional district, the group says, 100 percent of the 400 people surveyed support such checks. It said support was similar — though not quite as overwhelming — in several other areas. 

According to the poll results, universal background checks are favored by 95 percent of voters in New Jersey's 2nd district, 89 percent in the 3rd district, 100 percent in the 4th district, 91 percent in the 5th district, 92 percent in the 7th district, and 97 percent in the 11th district.

This is very interesting because if you listen to the gun-rights fanatics you'd expect the poor oppressed citizens of The Garden State to rebel against such terrible interference in their basic freedom and right to protect themselves.

But instead we have overwhelming support for this most sensible gun control measure. Could it be their poor education?  No, that applies to places like Alabama and Mississippi. Could it be they don't know what they're getting into?  No, they already have nearly the strictest gun control laws in that nation, and now they want more.

Fascinating.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Double Murder Plus Suicide in NJ

Local news reports

Police in Woodland Park, N.J., are investigating a double murder-suicide in an apartment complex.

Three bodies were discovered Tuesday morning in various locations around the Westmount Village apartment complex.

One body was found in front of the complex, another body was found in a parking  lot and a third body was found in the woods.

"I wasn't here but my neighbor heard gunshots. Normally everything is peaceful around here. I won't feel safe in this complex again," an unidentified man told reporters gathered outside the building.

The incident occurred at about 6:30 a.m.  Authorities say a man who was among those killed apparently shot the two other victims before killing himself.

A Criminal Act Disguised as a DGU (Defensive Gun Use)

The Daily Journal reports

A South Jersey pharmacist pulled out a handgun and fired several shots at a would-be robber as he chased him from his store, authorities said. Police said it did not appear any shots hit the fleeing holdup man, who had demanded narcotic painkillers.

“I’m no hero, but I thought, ‘Either him or I,’” said John Agyemang, who opened Jolin’s Pharmacy in Winslow about three months ago.

"No hero," is right. In fact this sounds more like criminal behavior than anything else.

You cannot shoot at a fleeing robber no matter what you thought you saw in their fanny pack.

But, unfortunately, even in New Jersey, gun owners get away with criminal acts like this.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

New Jersey Pathmark Shooting - 3 Dead

The New York Times reports

A supermarket worker left his overnight shift here then returned with an AK-47 assault rifle and killed two co-workers before fatally shooting himself, officials said on Friday. 

The gunman, a former Marine, re-entered the Pathmark Super Center on Route 9 about 4 a.m., firing the rifle wildly and shattering the store’s windows, the authorities said. The co-workers he killed appeared to be random victims, said Bruce Kaplan, the Middlesex County prosecutor. One was an 18-year-old woman, and the other was a 24-year-old man, officials said. 

Local authorities identified the gunman as Terence Tyler, 23. He was discharged from the Marines in 2010. The victims were identified as Christina LoBrutto, 18, and Bryan Breen, 24. 

Mr. Kaplan said the police did not know what precipitated the shooting in this community about 30 miles south of Manhattan. He said the gunman, who lived in an apartment building just behind the Pathmark, had been working the overnight shift with more than a dozen other employees before he left and returned with the rifle and a handgun.

This one is a mass shooting in all but the body count. And that was only an accident.

The shooter, like they usually do, chose the place of his grievance regardless of whether that place might allow guns or not. There was no  attempt to select a carefully chosen gun free zone in order to have the advantage of sitting ducks.

Of course there are those who will argue that New Jersey is one big gun free zone.  But, the truth is random spree killers don't care about that one way or another. 

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Steven Hopler Wins Big - The Blind Can See

North Jersey.com reports

A blind man in New Jersey has won a two-year legal battle to keep his gun collection. 

Morris County prosecutors claimed Steven Hopler was unfit to safely maintain his handguns, claiming he abuses alcohol and was taking an antidepressant when he accidentally shot himself in his Rockaway Township home while cleaning a pistol in 2008. 

But the 49-year-old Hopler, who is blind because of complications from diabetes, denies abusing alcohol and has completed a firearms safety course. And a state judge sided with him in a ruling issued Friday. 

The judge said Hopler can keep his gun permit and also ordered police to return the weapons they had seized after the accidental shooting. A court in 1994 allowed Hopler to purchase firearms and shoot them under strict conditions.

I'm speechless at this bone-headed court ruling. Blindness itself should be a disqualifier, as should having shot himself negligently.

I wonder how long it will be before we see Mr. Hopler in the news again.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Murder-Suicide in Bayonne, New Jersey

NJ.com reports on the terrible events.

Four people, including a baby, were shot and killed in Bayonne tonight in an apparent murder-suicide that neighbors said erupted from a domestic dispute.

The police didn't release much information, but

Angelo Ortega, 63, said he walks his dog past the house around 6 every morning, and often stopped to speak with a man at that address. He said the man, a Dominican, kept an impressive vegetable garden.

Ortega described him as "tranquil."

Either he owned the gun legally or he did not. Either way it's the easy access to guns that contributed to this. If he'd been a legal owner, the the requirements to qualify are too lenient. If he'd been an illegal owner of the gun, then it's just too damn easy to get guns.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Steven Hopler, Blind Gun Owner

The New York Times reports on the latest kerfuffle concerning Steven Hopler, the blind New Jersey gun owner. Of course he's not the only blind gun owner who's made the news.

When Hopler shot himself in the leg last year, I declared that I'm opposed to blind folks owning guns. That was met with the usual blowback from the gun crowd. But, I remain unconvinced.

Mr. Hopler, 49, who lives on a winding road here, is once again fighting for his right to keep and bear arms despite having been totally blind for most of his adult life. He has repeatedly persuaded judges to let him keep his collection of more than a dozen handguns, but doing so has been more complicated since 2008, when he was handling a .357 Magnum he owned and shot himself in the shin. 

Not only did he shoot himself, which for me is an automatic disqualifier, but while he was in the hospital from that stupidity, burglars entered his house and took some guns, one of which was used in a suicide. You see, having the right to own guns for Hopler and many like him, means leaving them lying around the house is perfectly acceptable. "they [the police] found one loaded pistol in an oven mitt and another gun tucked under a sofa cushion."

Then, there's the question of his drinking. Once, he was even arrested for being disorderly in a bar, another disqualifier for me.

The reason he's in the news again is that the Morris County prosecutor’s office is trying to have Mr. Hopler’s gun permits revoked.

What's your opinion?  Isn't it odd that in New Jersey where gun control is strong there's no provision for an eye examination prior to issuing a gun permit?  Shouldn't that be one of the main qualifiers?

If I understood correctly, in Hopler's case we're talking about gun permits to own guns in the home, not concealed carry. That means in other states more lenient than New Jersey, blind folks or people otherwise handicapped in such a way as to make safe gun handling impossible can own guns all they want.

That's wrong and something should be done about it.  Kudos to the Morris County Porsecutor who decided to pursue this case.  Good luck.

Please leave a comment.

Fatal Police Shooting in New Brunswick NJ

My Central Jersey reports on the latest police shooting which resulted in a dead unarmed suspect. To make matters worse, he was running away.

The Middlesex County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded on Friday that Deloatch, 46, died from a single gunshot wound that pierced his left side and struck his aorta. Deloatch was shot in an alley between two homes on Throop Avenue in New Brunswick at 12:12 a.m. during a foot pursuit involving the two officers. He was was pronounced dead at 12:37 a.m. at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.

The cops said they chased him down in the alley and a "struggle ensued." Sometimes that "struggle" is the footrace itself and they runner gets shot in the back. Notice how the other description fits that scenario, "a single gunshot wound that pierced his left side and struck his aorta."

Walter Hudson, an activist and founder of the Penns Grove Community Awareness Alliance group, said he marched with the protesters on Thursday and that another protest march on City Hall is planned for Saturday morning.

“We’re calling for justice for the family,” said Hudson, who said he got involved in the issue when a friend who is close to the Deloatch family called him. “It’s quite strange. This was an unarmed man, he had no gun, no outstanding warrants and he ends up shot dead. We’re seeking justice. This is not a black and white issue, it’s a community issue.”

The spokesman for the victim said it's not a racial thing, but let me make a little suggestion here. In Jersey, like in many other places, it's always a racial thing.

It's also a power thing. The guy with the gun kills the guy without one. I find it very difficult to imagine that being a legitimate shooting, and I have a good imagination.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Attempted Murder - Suicide was Work Related not Domestic

NJ.com reports

The two groundskeepers worked together on the same rolling fairways, buzzcut greens and sandy bunkers at the upscale country club in Bedminster.

But a work-related dispute between the two seasonal laborers turned bloody at Fiddler’s Elbow Country Club yesterday, said Somerset County Geoffrey D. Soriano.

As related by Soriano, the episode began when Francisco Jimenez, a 59-year-old Orange resident, was waiting at the club entrance when his fellow groundskeeper arrived for work about 5 a.m., riding in the passenger’s seat of a car.

Jimenez flagged down the vehicle, walked to the side where his coworker sat and fired a gun twice into the man’s upper body, Soriano said. The driver floored the accelerator to get away, as Jimenez fled in his own car.

Later they found the shooter, Jimenez, dead from a bullet to the head. His family were shocked, saying there were no indications that he was capable of anything like this.

This story illustrates a point I've made a few times. When something like this happens, something shocking and violent, I don't think anyone is concerned whether the shooter had been a concealed carry permit holder. This information often gets lost in the shuffle of bigger issues, dead bodies and such.

The pro-gun crowd love to parade all their statistics about how law-abiding the CCW guys are, but the numbers they provide are inaccurate, they fail to include many cases like this one.

What's your opinion? Did Mr. Jimenez own the gun legally? If it turns out he did, is someone responsible for ensuring the statistics properly reflect this fact? I don't think so.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

More on the Gun flow from Virginia to New Jersey

nj.com reports

We've heard about this case before. Now we get some more info from Mr. Beasley.

The leader of a gunrunning crew responsible for putting at least 50 weapons into the hands of city gangsters -- including the gun that killed 13-year-old Tamrah Leonard at a city block party in 2009 -- pleaded guilty yesterday.

Beasley admitted before Superior Court Judge Pedro Jimenez that he purchased guns in his childhood state of Virginia and sold them to drug dealers and gang members in Trenton.

He was certainly an enterprising young man.  In the report last year it said he liked to deal in revolvers becuase they didn't leave spent cartridges all over the place.  That's smart.

"Seventy-five percent of the crime guns in New Jersey come from out of state, and Virginia is the second biggest source state," state Director of Criminal Justice Stephen J. Taylor said. "Trayle Beasley is precisely the type of defendant we are seeking to take off the street through our efforts to fight illicit gun trafficking."

Don't you just love it when they talk percentages like that? I do.

What's your opinion? Do you think the gun laws are too lax in Virginia? I do.

Please leave a comment.