Meg Fellenbaum and friend (courtesy ammoland.com)
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The New Jersey Second Amendment Society writes:

Meg Fellenbaum – apparently a danger to society in New Jersey, but not Pennsylvania – allegedly committed the horrific crime of having her firearms locked in the truck of her car while driving to pick up her girlfriend. [Click here to read the full background to her arrest.]

However shocking this may be to gun control advocates, no one was victimized by Meg’s actions.

After a year of terror inflicted upon her by New Jersey’s (in)justice system, despite not posing any threat to public safety, NJ prosecutors successfully broke Meg down. They frightened her into accepting a plea deal of one year in prison (instead of facing trial and up to 13+ years in prison if she did not accept the plea deal).

I wish we were making this up, but this is New Jersey.

We’ve gotten to know Meg Fellenbaum over the past year and we cannot think of a better example of someone who has been entrapped by New Jersey’s ridiculous laws that seek to criminalize honest Americans. [ED: or better reason to pass H.R.38 – Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017]

We’re asking 2A supporters to call Governor Christie on 609-292-6000 and urge him to pardon Ms. Fallenbaum before he leaves office.

If you would like to donate to Meg’s legal defense fund please click here to donate so we can assist with her legal expenses. As many of you know, the State of New Jersey fights innocent people with endless taxpayer funds while we have to get second mortgages on our homes to defend ourselves. So even if you win, you still lose.

This madness needs to stop!

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83 COMMENTS

  1. Which is exactly why 2a is not a states rights issue. It’s a human and civil rights issue and the fed.gov has not only a right, but a duty to stop these atrocities from happening.

        • Only if in changing of the law there is notation made that the new law overthrows any breaking of that law previously.
          Otherwise she will have to pay for breaking what was considered an illegal crime at the time of conviction.

          Of course, the Governor could at any time pardon her once the new law becomes effective as well.

        • Why not, Californy is planning to release 500,000 marijuana offenders after their new recreational weed law begins in January 2018

      • There is nothing in the law to make it retroactive (which is generally a no-no with laws). She was (technically) guilty when it was a crime, so it’s not mooted.

        I have seen plenty of judges knock down charges when the law was changed on things like drugs- someone arrested for a criminal offense ends up with a fine because the judge realizes it’s dumb to give them a record for something that is now not a ‘crime.’ But since she is being sentenced she won’t have that step.

        Executive action- i.e. the Governor- is probably the only option. And I’m not sure I would be holding my breath since Christy isn’t running for office anymore.

      • No. It you were convicted under a law that was repealed by the legislature, you’re still convicted of the original crime and need to hope the executive pardons everyone convicted. For example, when the speed limit on highways was 55, speeding tickets didn’t get reversed when they were raised to 65. The speeders violated the law. Convictions are removed if the judiciary overturns a law because it is as if the law never existed.

        • There is only ONE (other) way that these convictions can be overturned and the people exonerated and that is if/when the Supreme Court strikes the law as unconstitutional; that is not a repeal, that means the law wa illegal and NEVER should have existed. BUT as we have seen, the useless SCOTUS refuses to hear most of the anti-gun law cases and allows the people to be mistreated by these tyrannical and out of control state governments.

          The biggest problem with our legal system is that laws are created and enacted BEFORE they are established as constitutional – totally backwards system!

  2. So how did they find the gun in the trunk? Legal search?
    Did she stupidly agree to a consent search of her car? NEVER do that…unless you are ABSOLUTELY sure there is NOTHING to be found. In reality? NEVER allow it.

    • Allowing a cop to access your car is like allowing a rat to access your larder. Neither has compunctions against dropping shit wherever they want.

    • As you have both said NEVER trust the cops and especially don’t trust their fucking dogs! I’ve seen a lot of false alerts from police dogs and been victim of one. Assholes tore my car apart stem to stern and got pissed when they burnt their hands on hot exhaust manifolds and heads. Fortunately they couldn’t charge me for their stupidity, maybe next time they’ll let me turn the power on an run the cooling system a minute or 30 before they go grabbin shit under the hood. And they ran the dog around the car because they thought they smelled weed, once the dog “alerted” they had probable cause to actually search the car.

    • According to the linked story from ammoland, she refused to consent to a search. At which point, one of the officers allegedly said something like “great! Now we’ll do this the hard way!”. They proceeded to take her down to the station, and towed her vehicle.

      There is more at the link. It’s definitely the stuff of nightmares.

    • iirc, she got pulled over for speeding and the cop claimed he saw one of those evil babykiller hollerpoint boolits on the floor of her car, so he decided to tear it apart.

    • Based on her story- because I haven’t found the prosecutor’s account, released police report, etc- the officer who was checking on her saw a “bullet” on the floor of the car that they said was a hollow-point.

      I really have no reason to believe this isn’t true. Half of the cars I get into with friends have a round somewhere in there, and occasionally they find their way into weird places.

      The hollow-point, IN AND OF ITSELF, is muy illegal in NJ (with exceptions). That provides probable cause to search the vehicle. That said, based on her account they were trying to get ‘consent*’ for quite some time so it makes you wonder.

      * For me, “consent” is not something you easily get once someone says no. Once you have them in handcuffs and start badgering them, how willing can that consent actually be, even if they say yes? If I know I have probable cause to search, I’m not asking for consent because it muddies the waters. If I do ask and they say no, I’m not going to try and play games with it. I wonder if this trooper is happy with the way this turned out.

  3. That is a feature not a bug. They get that hellion off the streets for a year and Jersey is officially safe from all those evil gun owners. \sarc\

    Sad to see them make an example of her but seriously we shoulda seen this comin after Ms. Allen.

  4. I live in PA right on the border of the NJ. I never really go there except maybe once or twice a year and never bring my gun because i dont really understand there gun laws. I had no idea hollow point ammo was illegal there. There laws are so dumb. Everyone there just drives over to PA to buy there guns anyway. Every gun store around me carries lots of NJ Compliant guns.

    • Hollow points are only illegal when they are loaded in a firearm outside the home ;excluding hunting. What’s BS is it is one count of a felony for each round loaded in the camber and magazine.

      • BS, A box full of HP reloading bullets will get you a charge for each and every bullet, even if you have no brass, powder or primers with you! That key chain with the HP loaded in neutered brass, there’s a charge waiting for you! NJ sucks.

        Everything in NJ is illegal when it comes to guns. You possess by exemption only. No exemption in the law, your guilty of a gun crime.

  5. Yet another victim because Governors, sheriffs and police chiefs, patrolmen and deputies, prosecutors, judges, and jurors have elevated the State to Almighty God status, buying into the lie that legislatures define right and wrong.

    • She took a plea, so I’m not sure you can finger a jury here. Though I’m not sure you could trust that a jury would do the right thing here. Pitching jury nullification as your legal strategy isn’t always allowed.

      • Stereodude,

        Your comment is insightful. My only quibble is that she took the plea deal because her attorney knew that a jury was virtually guaranteed to send her to prison rather than serve justice and do what is right.

        “Pitching jury nullification as your legal strategy isn’t always allowed.”

        For the past few decades, courts for all intents and purposes NEVER allow defense attorneys to talk about jury nullification because that would undermine the power of the Almighty State. Decisions since the late 1960s in U.S. Appellate Courts and the California Supreme Court clearly support bans on mentioning jury nullification.

        This is the clarion call that our courts and our government no longer work for the interests of We the People.

        • Jury nullification is the sole reason I hope I get to serve on a jury some day and that the case involves some sort of victimless “crime”.

  6. Will the homosexual community rally to her defense? In todays PC world they have more sway than honest organized gun owners.
    After Shaneen Allen, I don’t understand how any out of state gun owner can still think New Jersey is a safe place to be?????
    This proud white lesbian is out of touch with the real world. I hope her friends keep in touch with her while she’s in prison. She will need the support.

    • No, they won’t.

      I used to be an LGBT community activist in Seattle. My focus was on getting people (LGBT and otherwise) properly armed and educated on the use of deadly force in self defense. I worked with a lot of LGBT organizations, and while the support wasn’t always great (because guns), we were still part of the community.

      Within a week of Obergefell v. Hodges, when the LGBT community declared a great victory, the entire community turned on us as the Next Great Scourge. Our funding disappeared in a heartbeat. The ranges that were giving us range time got targeted as being bastions of cis-het-white-male privilege, so they (rightfully) cut us off.

      The final straw was a small group of friends we had came over to our house, drank our wine, ate our food, and then proceeded to school us on the evils we harbored and how there could scientifically be no such thing as a “reasonable gun owner”.

      Elsewhere in the city, all of what used to be fun LGBT-themed stuff turned to garbage. You couldn’t go to a drag show without hearing about how – even though she’s terrible – we have to stop at nothing to get Clinton elected. You go to burlesque shows that start off with jokes about how stupid you have to be to vote for anybody BUT Clinton.

      Long story short, Obergefell vs Hodges destroyed the LGBT community that used to stand for itself, and turned it into a far-left special interest sub-group of the democratic party.

      So, no, the “community” is not going to stick it’s neck out for an evil, gun-toting convicted criminal in New Jersey, even if she happens to claim to be gay. She’s clearly not the “right” kind of gay, what with her being a gun owner and all.

      This is why I’m so frustrated when I see anti-LGBT sentiment on TTAG and other places (usually driven by a religious argument). There’s plenty of people like us who have already demonstrated that RKBA is more important than LGBT, but who cannot find acceptance with either group, even though those groups SHOULD be natural allies.

  7. Trump pardon in order here? How does one start a White House Petition and get the word out that Trump should pardon this lady who did nothing wrong in a majority of other states?

  8. This sounds more like typical law enforcement community behavior from “Eastern Bloc Communist Police-States with Militaristic Left-wing Police Departments.” Again. The only way to curb this is to…..

    1.) WE THE PEOPLE NEED TO RE-AFFIRM, RE-ENFORCE, RE-CONSTIUTE our 2nd amendment rights. We need to make it a “Capital CrimWE THE PEOPLE NEED TO RE-AFFIRM, RE-ENFORCE, RE-CONSTIUTE our 2nd amendment rights. We need to make it a Capital crime for any Politicians, Police, or Government agencies to unlawfully “infringe upon it ! Hold government and it’s agencies accountable for any Politicians, Police, or Government agencies to unlawfully “infringe upon it ! Hold government and it’s agencies account! With a constitutional addendum to include private companies, landlords, employers organizations, etc…With 250k in compensatory dispensation for each incident. With additional fines and or imprisonment.

    • I think because she wasn’t passing through on an interstate roadway, she was picking someone else up in NJ. Stupid, but that’s probably how NJ got her.

    • Was it secured? i.e. Unloaded in locked container? Was she passing through the state without stopping except for necessity? Etc. The federal law is very technical and one can lose the protections very easily.

      • FOPA covers an origin where possession is legal to a destination where possession is legal. Going from PA to VA or VT would be ok. Since NJ was the terminus, it doesn’t apply.

  9. Officially the worst state in America. Boycott Jersey. Spread this across every gun group on FB. Petition chrispy creme. Petition Trump…

  10. This pisses me off. As someone who visits California often, I fear something like this could happen to me. My best hope that it doesn’t is I’ve printed out a copy of the laws regarding transporting firearms directly from the California AG’s website with their AG’s signature on the document. I keep it packed in the lock box with the unloaded pistol. I put a little chamber flag in the pistol for icing on the cake.

    This woman should be allowed to go free and paid compensation by NJ. These thugs are violating federal law protecting the transport of firearms by legal owners across state lines.

    • I travel to CA on business fairly often. I used to bring a gun along to keep TSA from going through my bags and disturbing sensitive electronics and to take oppressed friends out to the range. Then it transitioned to only revolvers, and now nothing.

      • I rent a pistol at the range in NJ when I visit my sister and her husband.
        So much easier and $25 for any pistol in the ‘library’, mix and match.
        I don’t dare bring any firearm to NJ let alone a suppressor.

  11. people of the gun outside of New Jersey still take guns into New Jersey?

    is that not the same as people jumping off of a bridge and wondering why they get hurt?

    Maybe her role is to serve as YET ANOTHER warning to others.

    • That’s not just DC, that’s all of Maryland.

      They take empty shell casings serious!

      Bob, living 10 miles from MD line.

      Being PA and surround by states like NY, NJ, and MD is like having Rosie O., Diane Fienstien, and Hillary Clinton as neighbors.

      • Warning! Danger Will Robinson, DANGER!

        DC and MD consider any and all components of ammunition to be ammunition!
        Yes, that spent shotgun hull on the floor of the Hertz pickup truck you rented,
        will get you arrested in MD and DC. They target out of stat plates and if they see any brass on the floor or in a cup holder, they got you big time.

        Unless you have a FOID card you can’t have any ammunition or parts in the car with you.

      • I’ll spare you the link but ammunition components are not permitted in the district. Cartridges, primers, bullets and powder are banned. An empty shotgun case got one guy almost 2 years and it was in his house. They turned up a muzzleload bullet too.
        Another case had two guys stopped for a moving violation. And an empty .22 cartridge was in the ashtray. Felony procedures and they were arrested.

  12. Lucky I’m not the Governor of Pennsylvania.

    I’d make Bridgegate look like kindergarten play….and all I would be doing is protecting my citizen’s rights according to the US and Pennsylvania Constitutions.

    “….shall not be infringed”….” In defense of themselves and the state shall not be questioned”.

  13. This brings up a good point.

    IF National Reciprocity goes through.

    Since Hollow point bullets are illegal in NJ, do I have to change my carry ammo out in order to change states?
    Also, what happens if say every state has different ammo laws, how awkwardly hard would that be to cross state lines?

    Jersey should be a Landfill, nothing more.

    Bob, Pa resident, lifelong Jersey hater.

    • I hate living in NJ… If you have hollow point ammo loaded in a gun you are transporting, it is a felony in NJ. You get one felony count for each HP bullet in your gun – chamber or mag. Hollow point ammo is only legal for home defense, and having it anywhere else than on your own property is a big no-no, unless you are transporting the ammo from the store to home, or from home to a licensed range, or if you are on the road to go hunting to a specific place that allows hunting with hollow point ammo. I would also like to point out that you cannot carry a weapon (CCW) in NJ unless your state’s carry permit is valid in NJ. Good luck with that. There is no open carry in NJ. Weapons cannot be transported through NJ loaded. Period. The gun must be unloaded and stored in its case (not holster) or locked in the trunk, and the ammo must be stored in a separate place, not in the glove box or console. The gun and ammo must not be accessible from the passenger compartment of the vehicle. This will be a touchy area if your car has a back seat that folds down and allows you to reach into the trunk, or if you are driving an SUV. You would then need to have your weapon and ammo stored in a locked box. If you have a felony conviction, no matter how old, do not be caught with a gun in NJ. Same if you are an illegal alien, have a dishonorable military discharge, have ever been hospitalized for mental illness. ESPECIALLY don’t have a gun if there is any pot or other drugs in the car as you won’t see the light of day for a very long time. If you need to travel through NJ with weapons or ammo in your car, you need to have your story crystal clear and before you go, compare it to NJ gun transport and possession laws and make sure you are good with every single point of the law. New York State law is worse than NJ. Happy travels!

        • Only a Federal Felony ends your gun-toting days forever. In Arizona as long as I don’t kill anyone I’ll have my gun rights back in less than 5 years

  14. Why didn’t Christie pardon her last year and save everybody a ton of money?

    He could have given a nice speech about how prosecutors abuse the law and make him override their decisions.

  15. To NJ LEO’s. Im really glad you can do this to a person driving through your state. Honestly you do not deserve to be called an American. You can fix this stupidity, you can say no Im not charging someone for simple legal possession of a firearm. The person follows the rules in that she had a CCW, what goddamn more do you want? Do you want us to lick your boots, is it just the power you are after? Ripping apart someone who is trying to follow these rules? Does that make you happy? I guess chasing illegals or other felons is too demanding for some, so you bust average real Americans because you cant be one. Thugs. Great work. You and your state sucks…

  16. NJ is 3 miles away and I never go there. Simple as that. I wouldn’t live or work in that state for any reason.
    My last social trip there was 5 years ago.

  17. She pulled over in the emergency lane to text.
    The cop thought she was broken down.
    Stupid people in stupid places doing stupid things.
    It started with her.
    The rest of the treatment is so 1850s!

    • Oh contraire your comment is stupid, shall we start jailing people for doing stupid things?, you would have to throw every teenager, and young adult in jail, because we are all guilty of that.

  18. Would this stop if New Jersey law enforcement were to be subjected to this treatment by Pennsylvania as law enforcement in retaliation for targeting and persecuting Pennsylvania residents? What if other states did the same? What if New Jersey government officials were also subjected to the same?

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