On the campaign trail in Monmouth & Ocean Counties,a question that pops up in rural areas of the "New" 12th District, when can citizens carry a gun for protection in NJ?
Been there, done that, with a handgun as a police officer. I do not know the percentage of police officers in NJ that go through their careers and have been involved in a shooting? I mean getting shot and shooting someone else.
But with the reported spike in crime in 2010 from 2009, I would bet that violent crime has also spike in 2011 with less police officers due to retirements and layoffs in NJ.
So should citizens in NJ be allowed to carry guns to protect themselves? I think I am changing my mind to let this happen if elected to the NJ Senate, as a Democrat.
After reading about what happened to Mr. Rattu from Old Bridge getting carjacked and shot to death in Atlantic City after going to that Abbott District to celebrate his graduation from Nursing School, if he had a gun he could have protected himself.Or what about Mr. Hughes in Paterson that was undergoing training with the National Guard. Gunned down on the street and now dead. Could he have protected himself with a handgun?
I carried a gun when I was a police officer, then retired and did not carry one. Then the law was enacted to let retired police officers carry. I went back to qualifying so I could carry but it was a pain in the ass to qualify 2 times a year with the cost of ammunition, use of firearm facility and annual permit fees with the NJ. State Police. I eventually let my permit lapse for the past 4 years.
But I re-activated it when it turns out that I was representing someone on a Drunk Driving case that was arrested in another State under a large FBI arrest of Mobsters and my client was one of them. I was quick to re-qualify and be able to carry to protect myself and my family from a potential perceived threat of a Mobster, although some of that threat may have come from too many Godfather and Goodfella Hollywood movies.
Maybe it is now time for NJ citizens to have that same protection with all that violent crime that I read about in the newspapers and see on TV about New Jersey's shooting spree of citizens in this State.
And this coming from a Democrat and not a Conservative Republican like Governor Christie or a Tea-Party Republican like my opponent Assemblyman Sam Thompson.
Bob Brown
Democratic Candidate
NJ State Senate, 12th Leg. Dist.
MM- I don't know if I can endorse this idea from my friend Bob Brown just yet but it is an intriguing idea. I am a gun owner myself and have often thought about the issue. If handle correctly, I my be able to be persuaded.
1 comment:
Most gun related crimes involve an element of surprise. The criminal will almost always have the advantage in that regard. The fact that police officers are often gunned down is evidence that in most street related crime, the innocent law abiding citizen is highly unlikely to do himself much good with a firearm.
There are scenarios where having a gun in your home would be of use, but allowing citizens to carry around firearms on their person, on the chance they will be victimized, will lead to more deaths. You are unlikely to be quick enough on the trigger to overcome the surprise attack, and many deaths will occur as the result of accidents and guns used in arguments because they are so readily at hand.
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