“As three Republican mayors serving in Bergen County, we believe that Congress has not done enough to close dangerous loopholes in our nation’s gun laws. In states like Virginia and Georgia, criminals continue to avoid background checks at licensed gun stores by purchasing from private sellers at gun shows and over the Internet . . . To be clear, we are not anti-gun. We are also the first to admit that not every crime has a legislative fix. But we are concerned that the gun debate on Capitol Hill has been overtaken by well-funded lobbyists with extremist positions – people who are pushing to allow guns in bars, in churches and on college campuses, and who are not doing enough to keep guns out of criminal hands.” Mayors Sophie Heymann [above], Carlos Colina and Patrick O’Hagan [via northjersey.com]

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54 COMMENTS

  2. What’s this thing about purchasing firearms over the internet without a background check? I want to find out where I can do this. Not that I have a problem passing the NCIS but I hate the paperwork.

    • They’re talking about craigslist and private sellers on a certain well-known firearms auction website. THe problem of which is you’re meeting someone you don’t know in some parking lot somewhere to deal in a transaction with the potential for a large-ish sum of money, and a firearm.

      I’m pretty sure this meets the qualifications for “A Damn Stupid Idea.”

      • Damn stupid idea? Bring a friend and meet them at the range.

        Or you can just keep shelling out dealer markup and buying guns that are part of the e-trace system.

      • For one, craigslist doesn’t allow anything weapons related let alone firearms so right off the bat you lose credibility.

        Backpage, however, embraces firearms ads and thousands of folks sell guns face to face weekly with nary a problem. Are there meetings that go sideways? Sure, but they are few and far between.

        This article involves New Jersey’s version of Republicans for crissakes. They have no credibility.

        • There are dedicated firearms forums that largely consist of OFWGs and YFWGs who don’t even so much as litter. Plus, they have reviews and the community knows them. These are the people I buy from or sell to when I want something, want to trade, or want to reduce the collection.

          Meeting strangers always involves risks but you can mitigate them by being smart.

      • Reasonable Man and other. Buying off of Craigslist or Backpage is not the same thing as buying off the internet. It is the modern equivalent of checking the classified section of a newspaper. It’s just the modern way to bring buyers and sellers together.

        Buying off the internet is going to a place like Cheaper Than Dirt and having the weapon delivered to you house.

    • If you know where to look, the internet litterally has everything. TOR is the browser to use, silk road is the website. It’s much harder for gov to trace things on TOR, It was designed specifically for anonymous internet use. it randomly generates a new ip address for you, and it jumps from many different computers when sending info to and from your computer. Silk Road is the amazon of illegal things. drugs, stolen items, and previously guns, but they stopped the guns about a month ago due to it not being profitable

  3. Its NJ, can you really call them republicans? Look at the current governors stance on gun control. He thinks NJ laws are just fine!

    I am sure to get flamed for this, but I am ok with the way we handle private sales here in CT. You meet, you still have to fill out the same paper work as you do at an FFL and have to mail it in and keep it for 20yrs, but you can phone in the sale and background check and it is free. I have only done this twice, but it was simple quick and easy and free. And, unlike NJ, long guns and hand guns can be done this way provided both parties have a permit.

    • ?????
      Surely you jest!!!
      Gandalf is better looking…. And a lot more sensible!!!!
      She looks more like Gollum after a bad night of cheap wine and ugly women!!!!

  5. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 80% of criminals got their firearms from friends, family and black market. How will a background check help this? And, as I always ask when the mention of universal background checks comes up. What will compel a criminal seller to conduct a background check on his criminal buyer? This would be like requiring a drug addict to have a prescription for cocaine before buying it from the local drug dealer.

  6. “To be clear, we are not anti-gun.”

    No, you just want to punish law-abiding citizens for the behavior of lawless criminals.

  7. I wasn’t aware that it was a lobbyist’s job to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals. I was also under the impression that criminals weren’t allowed to own firearms, because there was ALREADY a law to cover that. And why would a mayor of a city or town in north NJ be overly concerned about gun laws in VA and GA? Don’t they have enough NJ stuff to worry about?

  8. “… lobbyists with extremist positions – people who are pushing to allow guns in bars, in churches and on college campuses …”

    So it is extreme if a responsible citizen like myself wants to be armed in their church? Like last week when an irate person called my church leading our church to lock down, call the police, and alert all church members via e-mail about what might happen at Sunday morning services?

    I am a stable, responsible, upstanding, civic minded citizen who volunteers in my community. I have a family with small children. Our family attends church most Sundays. And I have a concealed handgun carry license. Unfortunately, I live in a state that considers me a criminal if I carry a concealed handgun into my church. What is extreme is telling me that I must be unarmed if an attacker comes into my church.

  9. See what she did there, equating all of us who want to see bans on CCW on campus/in churches with criminals? In the same breath the “extremist” gun lobby are not doing enough to keep guns out of criminals’ hands AND those who want campus carry and church carry. Very tricksey.

  10. I have been living in Bergen county for 8 years, and like everywhere there are idiot politicians who think that their opinions represent the same feelings of the majority. But they’re wrong.

    There are a few stores in county that sell firearms and the FFL dealers there are just as frustrated with the choking amount of laws as the public. Most of my friends who are FA owners choose to own for self defense in case there is ever rioting or looting after some kind of disaster because NYC refugees would come to NJ for help. Most of the time there are no violent crimes. One county south is Hudson county home of Newark, NJ. Those residents really need to defend themselves.

    Bergen is also on the NY state border, so we can go there for shopping as well.
    NJ has always been f***ed up with our politicians and laws because of all of the elderly and NY transplant citizens who retire here and bring their ideals with them.

  11. …And in 12 years one of them will run for president with NRA backing. And 90% of the people reading this will vote for them.

    • Some New Jersey mayors we’ve never heard of who are gop support some gun laws and that proves what aqbout the gop?

      Now for some names we have heard of that do support a whole lot of gun control: rahm, obama, schumer, difi, the clintons, pelosi, boxer,launtenberg and with a side dish of bloomberg.

      Now after this election we’re going to have either a dem or gop for president. For your guns which do you prefer.

      Oh yeah, forgot to throw kagan and sotomayer in there as well and the next president will have the chance to appoint other judges.

      No matter how good they look on paper paul or johnston ain’t getting elected this cycle so voting for them is voting for barry and against your guns.

      • It really doesn’t matter what you say jwm, I’m voting for Paul. I’ve heard it all from others besides you “you’re actually voting for Obama.” No, I’m voting for Ron Paul.

        Republicans don’t like it? They made it very clear to me during the primaries that people who like Ron Paul are not welcome. Romney ran a dishonest campaign for a dishonest party.

        And on the strict subject of gun control, I don’t trust Romney any more than I trust Obama–regardless of party affiliation. Neither party stands for liberty.

        I’m hoping my vote for Paul will help shake up the Republican party and realize that people under 30 have spent their entire adult lives hearing them preach about small govt while vastly expanding and overreaching and have realized the Republican establishment lies about everything. Which could very well and probably does include their stance on the 2nd amendment.

        • nonnamous, it’s a free country, vote how you wish. But don’t delude yourself into believing that voting for paul is anything but helping barry.

          And once barry gets a second term be ready for a new and inproved U.N. arms treaty and difi’s awb becoming permanent and then look for the clinton’s to return to the white house in 16. Vote for paul and then sell your guns before you have to turn them in.

        • You may very well be right, but all I’m trying to say is I don’t doubt Romney and many Republicans would love to do the exact same thing.

        • Sometimes you simply have to go with “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. It ain’t near perfect but it’s the world we live in.

        • I know how you feel, I voted for Ross Perot back when he was running in ’92. It didn’t seem like Bush senior really wanted the job, and Clinton was everything I didn’t want. It felt good to vote for someone that I really could support, instead of holding my nose and voting for the lesser of 2 evils. It felt good right up to when Clinton won and I figured out that those of us that voted for Perot, probably caused Bush to lose and put slick Willie in the White House. It’s a free country as they say, so vote the way you want to. Just relating my feelings after I voted for a 3rd party candidate that got 19% of the vote, but really didn’t change much in how the country operates.

        • Yes and when slick willie was in we got the first awb and mag limits, which some of us are still living with. I hate to think of barry in a second term.

  13. I disagree: shooting a criminal with your own gun, whether paid to do so or on a volunteer basis, is a statistically effective and immediate way to get firearms out of the hands of criminals. Legislation suffers from reduced speed, increased complexity, and that the fact that it tends to be bullshit. Reduce bullshit. Pack heat.

    Alternatively, you could run and hide when the shooting starts, or chastise the criminal personally for his careless disregard of the relevent state or local laws.

    • “Alternatively, you could run and hide when the shooting starts, or chastise the criminal personally for his careless disregard of the relevent state or local laws.”
      ——
      Such chastising becomes doubly effective when accompanied by generous amounts of finger-wagging.

      • Don’t forget the stern looks. Ya gotta have some stern looks in the mix too… then the criminal will start balling like a baby and hand over their guns.

  14. This whole article proves that always voting party lines is not the best way to protect our 2nd amendment rights. Most Republicans are our supporters but not all. Also, there are some Democrats who are supporters as well. This is why we have to be responsible voters and do our homework on each candidate.

  15. More evidence to reinforce the truism that gun control is a reflection of the values of a population. No matter what letter is in front of their name, a politician ultimately does what their constituency wants-and the constituencies of NJ, like those of IL and other states, like gun control.

  16. I’m glad to know that Georgia’s gun laws are so pro gun that even Nanny Jersey Republicans don’t like them. Meanwhile, the Brady Bunch ranks us near the top as a crime gun supplier. Considering our violent crime rate isn’t that bad, especially outside Atlanta, it makes me think, the criminals may get their guns here, but they know better than to use them!

  17. I used to be ambivalent about private party gun sales focusing on criminals, in some states, taking advantage of it to get a gun avoiding a CBI. I’m increasingly concerned with the federal government’s long-term anti-gun agenda to now respect and appreciate the right of good law-abiding citizens to acquire guns that won’t possibly later be confiscated. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” and can sometimes also be achieved overnight riding in a fast aircraft. I am more concerned with government’s evolution into a progressive and fascist police-nanny state.

    Anyone looking to sell a Marlin 1894 in .357 black or stainless?

  18. If ‘GOP’ Mayor Sophie Heymann was living in the San Francisco Bay Area she would be an open liberal democrat based on what I quickly learned about her online and what I can profile about her from her picture and name. Sophie would probably get along great with SCJ Ruth Bader Ginsburg. That 1930s Italian Communist was an astute strategist when he wrote that putting the correct people into positions of power of a nation’s major cultural institutions will eventually result in the desired change to that nation’s value system. The result is a transformation without firing a shot on the battlefield.

    Men: Obama not only wants you gun-less, he wants your sons to be anti-gun and happy metro-sexuals.

    • That reads like something the great Thomas Jefferson would write as a warning to us in the problems with pure democracies.

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