The fact that I was born there is proof that God has a mischievous sense of humor.
Posted on 07/15/2008 7:20:24 PM PDT by neverdem
Caught speeding in Highland Park in April in his father's Acura RSX, Ryan Narciso found out the hard way about a recent change in a New Jersey gun law that could send him to prison for three years.
The 20-year-old sales clerk at a shop at Menlo Park Mall and former Middlesex County College student had a pellet handgun in the car, according to an indictment filed last week in Superior Court, New Brunswick.
The gun, a Gamo P-23, was sitting under the rear window of the 2004 coupe. Looking like a larger-caliber handgun, the firearm drew a quick response from the bicycle-patrol officer who stopped Narciso for doing 40 mph in a 25-mph zone. With gun drawn, the officer arrested him.
Narciso's father, an architect, bought the pellet gun at a garage sale a few years ago to fend off squirrels that made their way into the attic of the families home on Mount Pleasant Avenue in Edison, the father and Narciso's lawyer, Amilcar Perez of Perth Amboy, said.
Under a new state law, Narciso's possession of the weapon qualifies as a Graves Act offense. Narciso could face what prosecutors and criminal defense attorneys call a "hard three," meaning three years with no prospect of parole.
But a state official Wednesday acknowledged that the draconian measure made its way into law by mistake.
Stiffening the law
The Graves Act, adopted in 1981 and named after Frank X. Graves Jr., the late state senator and law-and-order mayor of Paterson known for patroling the city, outlined mandatory-minimum prison sentences for anyone guilty of using a gun in the commission of a crime in New Jersey. A burglar caught with a handgun, for instance, faced a solid three years behind bars for the gun crime alone.
With little or no fanfare, lawmakers stiffened the Graves Act in the last session. They folded the amendment into anti-gang legislation that Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed into law in January.
Now, the simple unlawful possession of any firearm can bring mandatory penalties for anyone who pleads guilty to or is convicted of that crime alone.
The law does not trigger hard time in each case.
As the law stands, Narciso could avoid prison if he enters a pretrial-intervention program, allowing him to eventually erase his criminal record, or benefits from a narrow alternative for probation under the Graves Act. But the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office could block the first of those possibilities and must initiate the second.
A 50-year-old businessman from Somerset County faces longer odds for gaining such mercy. Police charged the man in a drunken-driving accident this year. While investigating, officers found an unsecured handgun the man had just lawfully purchased.
"It was unboxed in his car," said his attorney, Blair Zwillman of Woodbridge.
Because of the change to the Graves Act, the businessman is now looking at a 5-year minimum prison term, Zwillman said. He declined to provide his client's name.
Steven Altman, a New Brunswick criminal-defense attorney, said the stiffer gun law casts a wide net.
"It is going to impact a great many people who have nothing to do with gangs," he said.
But the businessman and Narciso may not face any hard time.
"Huge mistake'
Neither Narciso, nor his father knew they broke the law by having the gun without a firearms registration card, both men said.
"If we knew it was illegal, my dad never would have gotten it," Narciso said.
And it proved ineffective in controlling the problem in the attic, they said.
"That gun couldn't even kill a squirrel," the father, Emiliano Narciso, said.
Regardless of the change to the Graves Act, possession of the pellet gun is still a crime that can theoretically bring three to five years in prison, but rarely means incarceration for first-time offenders. Past offenders would likely see several months of jail at most.
Narciso has never had a brush with the law.
His father said his son was recently playing with the gun and threw it in the back of the car. Ryan Narciso said he forgot it was there.
Despite the revelations about the confused legislation, Ryan Narciso, who hopes to return to college to study fashion or product design, did not seem relieved Thursday outside his home where he lives with his siblings and parents.
"Every time I think about it, I think of what a huge mistake it was," Narciso said. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused."
Ken Serrano: (732) 565-7212; kserrano@mycentraljersey.com
He's SORRY for the trouble that HE caused?! @sswipe - he should be OUTRAGED that the fascist PRNJ has outlawed what kids have owned for generations (and still do, in free states).
I am SOOOOO glad not to live in that Socialist craphole anymore. I have a carry license, dozens of >15 round magazines and could easily buy a machine gun if I had the dollars to spare on one. No such things are possible in NJ.
True story: on my way from NJ to Texas about 7 1/2 years ago, I passed the "Welcome to Delaware" sign on the DMB on I-95. I turned to my wife and said, "Now you won't have to bail me out of jail." Of course, I got the pie-eyes and the open mouthed look that I expected, along with a "Why?" I explained the idiocy of NJ's "assault weapon" ban, part of which outlawed magazines of > 15 rounds capacity. She asked how many I had, and I said "Well, about 18 inches behind my rear end sits about 200 years in Rahway prison." Bigger pie-eyes, and she almost broke her jaw on the console. She thought for a couple seconds and asked, "They don't have laws like that in Texas, do they?" I said, "No, Texas is in America."
Eff the PRNJ. I can't wait for the SCOTUS to incorporate the 2nd via the 14th, and to thereby tell NJ, Kali and a bunch of other repressive socialist sh itwholes that their laws are unconstitutional.
Absurd. We give people slaps on the wrist for real crimes and lock ‘em up for having glorified toy’s in their cars. If BB guns were treated like this when I was a kid then i’d be serving life.
I think they were afraid you can put an eye out with the BB gun. They’re only doing it for our protection. </sarc>
When I was living in the district, it was under his successor, Elliot Engel, who wasn't much of an improvement.
Nice b*st*rd-beater. Is it as effective as it looks?
I grew up in Hopatcong on the border of Morris and Sussex counties, Sussex County is deeply red, it’s like the South without the heat. Morris county used to be heavily Republican, it’s changing though, all of the “sophisticates” with their big houses, big cars and small brains vote democrat. It’s the trendy thing to do, it’s so “Manhattan”.
I'm not a legal scholar, but I would bet that most of New Jersey's gun laws can be tried under Heller. They are nothing if not "arbitrary and capricious". But as I understand it, a suit like that requires a "good defendant" and that will be someone who takes away all the classic liberal arguments.
It will have to be a minority, preferably a black woman, who has suffered recent violence, and can demonstrate a need for self protection that doesn't meet the NJ standard.
I don't think this kid is going to make the cut.
There are still Red State people here in New Jersey... lots of them. We're so much like East Germany that the state has even built a virtual wall in the form of a hefty "exit tax" which you have to pay on the sale of your home if your forwarding address is out of state.
We envy you all in the free part of America, but would still appreciate you not writing us off entirely just yet. Resistance is forming here ... bit by bit.
Here is a little something on it:
"New Jersey's Image Problem" or "Mad Max 7: Beyond The Pulaski Skyway"
The fact that I was born there is proof that God has a mischievous sense of humor.
The time and money that these people are going to have to expend trying to defend theirselves against this law infuriates me. Rather than apologizing for buying a bb gun they should be outraged at the charges and threat of imprisonment for this kid!!!!!!!!!!!
God I hate NJ, it’s a cesspool; so glad I no longer live there.
File this under "Aren't you sorry you asked?" -- from the book.....
Blow guns are not specifically defined under New Jersey law. However, blow guns arguably could be considered as a weapon. Weapons are specifically defined under N.J.S. 2C:39-1r. which means anything readily capable of lethal use or of inflicting serious bodily injury. ...Blow guns arguably could be defined as a firearm which includes "... any gun, device or instrument in the nature of a weapon from which may be fired or ejected any solid projectable ball, slug, pellet, missile, or bullet ..." The definition of firearm also includes "... without any limitation an air gun or other weapon of a similar nature in which the propelling force is ... air or compressed air ... ejecting a bullet or missile smaller than 3/8 of an inch in diameter with sufficient force to injure a person." ...
Blow guns may be prohibited under N.J.S. 2C:39-5d. [which] prohibits possession of any other weapon "... under circumstances not manifestly appropriate for such lawful uses as it may have..."
Unlawful possession of a blow gun under N.J.S. 2C-39:5d. is a crime of the fourth degree. The maximum jail time is eighteen months in State prison and the maximum fine is $7500.
So, as you can see..... here in New Jersey, a "weapons violation" is pretty much anything that an arresting officer and a state judge want it to be. It is absolutely shameful.
Malsua, in the interest of full disclosure -- we should also tell the folks that, where we live, if one were to leave a box of donuts on the passenger seat or Cheerios on the floor, the car is likely to be busted open by a bear. Whether it's locked or not. :-(
True. Our predators have 4 legs. It was just last august that the bear tried to come through the kitchen window. I've got bars up now.
We're so much like East Germany that the state has even built a virtual wall in the form of a hefty "exit tax" which you have to pay on the sale of your home if your forwarding address is out of state.
I'm astonished that such a law can pass constitutional muster. I'd have to reread the Constitution to see what I think it violates, but . . .How heavy of a tax is it?
I guess I better warn my daughter about the marshmallow gun, huh?
There must be a dozen projectiles in that assault weapon!What fiend designed that - John Browning?
I believe it’s 1% of the purchase price... today.
Are Super Soakers next???
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