Christie pardons 3 on gun charges after pressure on campaign trail the headline at northjersey,com proclaims. How cynical is that? Surely Christie pardoned North Carolina cell tower worker Brian Fletcher, Floridian Elizabeth Griffith and Pennsylvanian Todd Doering because the New Jersey governor recognizes the unconstitutionality of his state’s gun control laws. northjersey.com has a different, although hardly unique perspective on the presidential candidate’s motivation, including this background info on Christie’s gun rights record . . .
Christie, working to highlight his conservative credentials for Republican voters in key states, has a mixed record on gun issues.
In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, Christie called for a ban on .50-caliber assault weapons, but he later vetoed a Democratic measure to do just that. This year, while visiting South Carolina, before he officially declared his candidacy, Christie told attendees at an event that he hasn’t signed any new gun laws. Christie has, however, signed several less controversial gun-related measures, including bills that increase the criminal penalties for gun trafficking and provide a 180-day amnesty period for people to turn in illegal weapons.
Again, the paper’s being less than charitable. Or honest, depending on your perspective. Will this pardon impact the Garden State’s policy on reciprocity? Without mentioning the fact the New Jersey only has reciprocity with . . . wait for it . . . no other states, [In this NJ is not alone: California, Connecticut, DC, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, Rhode Island and New York (have the same policy.] At least nj.com raises the issue.
Currently, 37 U.S. states have firearm permit reciprocity agreements with at least one other state. Some, like Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, universally recognize any carry permit issued by any other state.
Such a reciprocity law would have protected Griffith, who had Florida-issued concealed carry permit.
“I don’t know why the Legislature won’t change something like this when they, over and over again, see folks who are legal carriers of guns in other states, who are coming through here and not doing anything other than traveling through New Jersey,” said Christie in an August interview. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
If New Jersey had reciprocity with more states, its residents might begin to question NJ’s own highly-restrictive gun control laws. In other words, no; this will have no impact on NJ law.
F him. How about directing the legislators to construct a law allowing reciprocity.
And therein lies the difference between the national-level major parties that some folks keep insisting doesn’t exist. In order to have a chance in the Republican primaries, Christie has to swallow whatever personal objections he may have and go on to issue pardons like this. In order to have a chance in the Dem primaries, a candidate would have to swallow whatever personal objections he or she might have to the convictions and go on to uphold them. As to how much of a difference that makes in actual governance–well, I can hardly believe that it isn’t significant.
Christe is a Progressive all the way. I don’t care if he says that he is a republican or not, he is a progressive.
I used to worry about those who falsely called themselves Republican. Now I only care about those who falsely call themselves Conservative. ALL OTHERS CAN F THEMSELVES WITH SOMETHING SHARP AND HEAVY.
Get after it, I’ll wait.
That word has really come into style, hasn’t it. WTF is a “Progressive”, anyway? I guess the modern day usage has come to mean big-government Liberal. But the original use of the term in the early 20th Century was all over the political map. Many of them were racists, fascist, eugenicists, communist, and just about any kind of “ist” you wanted to be, in the name of “progress”. (Although, a big part of the Progressive movement dealt with education about public health, hygiene and sanitation, which was sorely needed.)
I don’t use the term and I would challenge anyone, who claims to be a Progressive, to define it because most people are just using it as a non-threatening euphemism for something else.
Progressives can be from either the Left, Center, or Right. All that really matters is they believe in trying to improve things using advancements human knowledge such as science, technology, and economic development to improve society. So back when there was a lot of psuedo-science surrounding race, there were a lot of racist progressives but there were also a lot of progressives that many gun owners would proudly side with such as good ol’ Teddy Roosevelt who is widely considered to be the definitive leader of the progressive movement in the early 20th century.
^ – , said Ellsworth Twoohey
Don’t you dare attempt to soften the sting of the term “Progressive.” That’s a term they coined to hide from the other terms that had come to reflect WHAT THEY REALLY ARE. Progressives are all liberal fascist POS’s (and thereby slightly more deleterious than “worthless”).
Just because someone incorrectly identifies himself is no reason to obscure the word’s definition. Words mean things…specific things.
Lookup the meaning of what a Progressive and a Communist are. Then see what they actually do and support…
There is only one term we should be using to describe these cretins. Leftists. That is what they are. Not Liberals (we conservatives are the true liberals). Certainly not progressives. Leftists. Like Mao, Stalin, Marx, et al.
Just for the record, being “law abiding” is often thought of as a virtue. Much of the time I’d say it is not because so many laws serve to punish people who have not harmed or threatened anyone. Bad laws.
Obeying the laws, even the ones that inhibit your pleasures are what makes us civilized. As our society moves toward more and more lawless attitudes, we can see that our values are becoming more barbaric as well.
Blindly obeying laws like the ones involved in these pardons and like smoking the “wrong” leaves is tantamount to slavery. It makes us pathetic.
No, respecting the rights of others to do as they see fit, so long as they cause no harm to others, is what makes us civilized.
Obeying the laws for the sake of obeying the laws makes us sheep.
“I don’t know why the Legislature won’t change something like this….”
Well, there he goes again. Blaming the Democrat legislature. You can’t bill yourself as a bipartisan problem solver and consensus builder worthy of the White House, then turn around and blame the opposition for stymying your efforts toward progress. Besides, not to let gun grabbing NJ Dems off the hook, but it may not even be the legislature’s fault.
In Texas, the legislature has authorized the executive branch, specifically our Attorney General, the power to grant carry license reciprocity, mutilaterally, bilaterally or unilaterally. So long as the other state’s licensing standards are substantially similar to or meet or exceed Texas’ own standards, in the AG’s assessment, then he can grant reciprocity.
Now, I don’t know for a fact that’s how NJ works, but it might. In that case, the NJ AG is John Hoffman. In New Jersey, the office of AG is not an elected office, but an appointed position. Guess who appointed Hoffman?
Last Time I checked, Christie hasn’t been able to get the Legislature to agree with him on anything. NJ law isn’t like Texas law and the chances of our Lefty-Democrat Legislature granting the Centrist-republican Executive anything has about as much chance as a fart in a windstorm.
He is a fat load of crap. This reminds me 1992 when Bill Clinton was taking hits from the opposition that he was soft on crime and then scurried back to Arkansas and signed the order to have a mentally handicapped man put to death. This pant load is not better slick Willy.
Bill Clinton reduced the number of investigative personnel (those doing the background checks for Security Clearances) to two (2) per state. Vastly nutting the nation’s capabilities in preparing for overseas contingencies. He rushed back to AR to kill the mentally handicapped individual because satan was jealous of how much oral Bill was giving China.
You left out IL which doesn’t recognize any other States’ permits (unless something has recently changed).
I live in NJ and have for over 40 years. During that time I’ve seen eight governors come and go and until Christie not one of them ever questioned any of our draconian gun laws. As far as NJ.com is concerned, Christie could bring about a total economic recovery, build the new trans-Hudson rail tunnels, rejuvenate our rumblng cites and infrastructure and bring about total world peace and NJ.com would criticize his weight.
New Jersey, NY etc. cannot recognize out of state permits, because of they did, they would then have to explain how people from out of state can carry concealed but state residents (who pay the bills) cannot. Oh how embarrassing!
Yep. The other problem is it would make it harder for Tony Soprano and friends to do business. Criminals prefer their victims unarmed. Also those criminals got most NJ politicians in their pockets.
I just gave myself an enema. Pushed too hard. Now I have a Christie hanging out of my asshole.
Gov. Christie could have and should have intervened before these poor folks had to be put through the whole trial process, pardon after the fact is still a stain. Just recently another opportunity that this clueless Gov is likely to completely mess up on:
http://www.ammoland.com/2015/09/new-jersey-gun-laws-screw-over-another-innocent-mom/
Enjoy NJ there Gov, cause you aren’t getting the GOP nod anytime soon.
North Carolina also recognizes all 50 states permits regardless reciprocity.
NJ, MA and NY prefer to let criminals know that cars with out of state plates are totally safe targets because the drivers are guaranteed to be unarmed.
I guess they never read to reporting that Florida eliminated the special plate it required for rental cars. Criminals looked for those tags and attacked tourists at a very high rate compared to the general public.
Folks, don’t get hung up on a word. Definitions change with time. Remember that our founding forefathers were once terrorists and rebels and many other bad guy type names. As for the states with no reciprocity; there is a reason I do not travel to or through them. I realize that is not viable for everyone. But take a look at the states being listed. They are known to be red for the most part. As for Christie, lets face it, he really is no longer a serious candidate. Not really worth any real time being spent on him here. But, at least he did the right thing by these people.
I think we should leave CC in NJ to keep pardoning foolish gunowners who stupidly wander into NJ.
He can accomplish more good that way than anybody would reasonably expect him to accomplish in the White House.
Add ILLINOIS to your “NO RECIPROCITY” list.
What matters here is that Christie sees significant political advantage in pro gun rights behavior. He may be doing it for all the wrong reasons, but there are at least three people who should be very happy about his presidential ambitions. He does not have a “snowballs chance…” of moving into the white house but, how many other people have benefited from a presidential candidate’s campaign, past or present?
I was going to comment on Christie’s phoney pro-2A stance now that he is running for President and cite some facts on his previous voting regarding gun control, but you guys already get it and no one seems to be dupe by this fat, blow hard.
Even if there were reciprocity, full ding dong no hollow points law would send me to the slammer. 33 felony counts plus my poor PPQ in line for meltdown….blech! Progressively worse consequences….
How can you pardon someone that has done NOTHING wrong. He has not repealed gun control laws in violation of the 2nd and therefore is guilty of, Gun control = TREASON. The school shooting is tragic and about as far away from Texas with its lawful campus carry. Why didn’t this dirtbag go to Texas to show how tough he really is? THIS is why people should not be harassed about carrying guns.
No double standards put DC politicians on Obamacare and SS.Thanks for your support and vote. Pass the word. mrpresident2016.com
It still amazes me that a state can consider someone with a valid carry permit from another state to be unfit to carry in theirs. Clearly not a criminal, these people have undergone a background check and stayed out of trouble. Some even have USG security clearances and work in positions of trust. Gang bangers they aint
Until someone actually commits a crime with a firearm it shouldn’t be an outright felony to possess one. That’s like saying driving a car with a closed bottle of booze is drunk driving.
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