Free Republic

Up until the point that they infringe on the Second Amendment, New Jersey’s lawmakers have every right to pass restrictive gun laws. To the extent that these laws have the support of the state’s population, legislators should pass them. That’s how constitutional democracy works. What no legislator should ever do, however, is allow the police to throw innocent, well-meaning people in jail. And that’s what New Jersey’s state government has been doing for the past several years. Utah’s Gregg Revell is a victim of this trend, but his is only the most recent story to make the news. Just last...

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...

BELVIDERE - A U.S. Army sergeant convicted last month of shooting a 15 year old girl with a BB gun is seeking a new trial. Jeffrey Mott, 30, shot the girl on Oct. 30, 1999, as she and her friends fled the scene of a mischief night prank in Phillipsburg. The incident began after someone threw something at Mott's front door and broke the screen, authorities said. A jury last month convicted Mott of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and aggravated assault. The jury aquitted him of a lesser aggravated assault charge. The weapons offense carries a...