This story has been bouncing around the blogosphere:
A retired teacher is facing 10 years in prison and the loss of his state pension for possessing a flintlock pistol that may not have been fired since George Washington was alive, his attorney told FoxNews.com on Wednesday.
In a case that underscores the Garden State’s strict gun laws, Gordon Van Gilder, a retired English teacher and collector of historical items, has been charged with criminal possession of a handgun and faces up to 10 years in prison. If the 72-year-old is convicted, the charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 3.5 years and the pension Van Gilder earned as an educator could be revoked, penalties attorney Evan Nappen called “outrageous.”
via Flintlock from 1700s could land elderly NJ man in prison | Fox News.
Just like the Taliban destroying historical Buddhas statues because they were religiously “icky”, New Jersey considers that a flintlock built around the mid 1700s is a very dangerous weapon an in their minds probably even an assault weapon. They are stupid that way
So this meme came across my Facebook timeline and it needs to be shared:
Give that man a cookie!
Let’s remember for a second that the ATF and Federal Govt do not consider that item to be a gun. Being both a flintlock and made before 1898 it is classified as an “antique firearm” and can be shipped by mail across state lines without need of a FFL. Since it is nearly 300 years old, it is most likely not even metallurgically or mechanically sound to fire. This is, for all intents and purposes a gun shaped paperweight.
We can remember that, but also remember that NJ law contains no exemptions for antique firearms. If it EVER was a firearm, to NJ authorities it still is (and also probably an “assault weapon”). It’s my firm belief that the prosecutor’s desire to do a “ballistics test” on the pistol in question is a thinly-veiled desire to destroy the thing, and if (when) it explodes, he can add on a charge for possession of a “destructive device”.
There’s no other reason to
“ballistically test”destroy it, other than to spite the old guy – as if losing his pension over the charge and possibly dying in prison wasn’t enough.“New Jersey: Proudly subduing free people and destroying historical artifacts, more effectively than ISIS could ever dream.”
I bet half the reason they’re trying to get rid of the gun is because it’s a historical artifact with ties to the Revolution.
Can’t have any real history in here!
A state where the people need to take control back. I don’t know how anyone that believes in the Constitution can live in that shithole.
[…] Heh […]
Unfortunately for some, such as myself, it is a matter of circumstance. I would leave in a heartbeat but I have ties here for the time-being. While I fully agree that this state is utterly insane, I am left to wonder why the accused made the assumptions he did knowing full well how overzealous the state is. I know it’s B.S. here but I know there’s hoops to jump through so I do, if for no other reason to beat them at their own game. Ignorance of those “hoops” cannot be an excuse, because obviously, the prosecutors don’t care. At the very least it shouldn’t have been in the glove compartment. Cased in the trunk maybe? It just seems he made it too easy for them IMHO.
The brown shirts—ahem, I mean police officers—who conducted this arrest, should be ostracized by society. I doubt very much that they think at all in the first place, but if they did, I would imagine that they thought “Today, I’m going to strip someone of their rights as a citizen of the United States of America and make their life miserable. Because I’m a police officer. And that means I can do whatever I’m told by people who tell me they know better than I do. And I can sleep easy tonight.”
I find it interesting that the car was stopped for “acting suspiciously” in a known drug area, the gun was given up freely, supposedly heroin bags were found in the car, but this man was not charged with anything but transporting this gun.
Live free or there.