Please Tell Every State Senator to Oppose this Horrific Legislation.
Trenton, NJ – -(AmmoLand.com)- On Thursday, December 9, at 1:00 p.m., the New Jersey Senate Law and Public Safety Committee is scheduled to hear S3757 – the so-called “safe storage” of firearms bill which severely disrupts the right to self-defense inside the home explicitly recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Heller case (S3757 prevents rapid deployment of firearms for self-defense in an emergency).
Please Email Every State Senator And Tell Them To Oppose S 3757. Click Here To Copy And Paste The Email List Of Every Senator To Your Email Program.
No one disputes that gun owners have an obligation to ensure that unauthorized persons cannot access their firearms. But instead of mandating that as an objective and leaving accomplishment of that objective to the discretion of gun owners based on their own unique circumstances, this ill-conceived bill imposes an absurd, one-size-fits-all totalitarian mandate to keep guns unloaded and locked up inside the home and to keep ammunition separately locked up inside the home, except when “in use” – an utterly undefined term that will surely be interpreted to exclude everything except target practice.
So in an emergency, you will need to (1) get to your safe or lockbox, (2) unlock it, (3) retrieve your firearm, (4) get to your other separate lockbox, (5) unlock it, (6) retrieve your ammunition, (7) load your magazine or firearm, (8) insert your magazine into your firearm, and (9) use your firearm to defend yourself and your family, if you are still even alive by then.
But that is just the tip of the iceberg in this transparent attempt to block established Second Amendment rights inside the home. Below is a fuller list (you can also click here to see gun lawyer Evan Nappen’s detailed legal analysis)
- -Blocks the exercise of Second Amendment rights inside the home.
- -Imposes an absurd, unconstitutional, one-size-fits-all “solution” to the problem of preventing unauthorized persons from accessing your firearms.
- -Exception for firearms “in use” is completely undefined, and applies ONLY to firearms, NOT ammunition, so there is NO exception for firearms AND ammunition used together.
- -Bans storage of LOADED firearms in a safe or lockbox. They must be stored unloaded, and the ammunition must be stored in a separate lockbox. Forget being able to deploy your firearms in an emergency.
- -Subjects gun owners to criminal penalties if they do not comply fully with this legislation and bad acts are committed with their firearms by others.
- -Forces gun owners to perform community service to anti-gun organizations if they do not comply fully with this legislation.
- -Terminates gun rights and allows for seizure and forfeiture of guns, ID cards and permits for repeated failure to comply with the legislation.
- -Applies to ALL firearms, even antique and black powder guns.
- -Applies specifically and ONLY to LEGAL firearms owners. Criminals and those ILLEGALLY possessing firearms and ammunition are NOT INCLUDED in these requirements!
- -Prevents gun shops, gun dealers, gunsmiths, target ranges, and museums from conventionally displaying firearms or ammunition for viewing, rental, or purchase. Everything must be in a lockbox or safe.
- -Misleading language conceals what is in fact a ban on having loaded firearms at one’s place of business, farms, ranches, or other premises under the owner’s control.
- -Law enforcement, military, and security personnel are NOT exempt from this legislation.
Additionally, the dangers of one-size-fits-all, so-called “safe storage” mandates are not speculative or hyperbolic and have previously proven to be real. The tragic case of the Carpenter family in Merced, California is especially pertinent. The families’ firearms were locked up and inaccessible under that state’s storage laws. While the parents were out, a crazed murderer broke into the home and began stabbing the children to death with a pitchfork. One of the older teenage daughters, who survived, was trained in firearms use but she could not access the guns because California’s laws made them inaccessible to her. She later testified that she desperately wanted to access the stored guns to defend her siblings and herself, but couldn’t because of California’s laws.
S3757 is the worst type of legislation that can be concocted. It is poorly conceived, misguided, violates established U.S. law, and interferes with everyone’s sacrosanct right of self-defense. It will result in the death or serious injury of honest citizens who are blocked from accessing their firearms when they need them most. There is a much simpler, fairer, more flexible solution to the issue (task gun owners to keep their firearms from unauthorized persons, impose consequences if they don’t). Tell Senators to vote NO on S3757!
About Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs: The Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, Inc. is the official NRA State Association in New Jersey. Our mission is to implement all of the programs and activities at the state level that the NRA does at the national level. This mission includes the following: To support and defend the constitutional rights of the people to keep and bear arms. To take immediate action against any legislation at the local, state, and federal level that would infringe upon these rights. Visit: www.anjrpc.org