NJ Gun Laws Would have Frustrated Va. Tech Shooter

[JPZenger]

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20070419_Monica_Yant_Kinney___N_J__gun_laws_would_have_frustrated_shooter.html

The following are excerpts of a column a couple days ago in the Philadelphia Inquirer. The author had done a test a few months ago to see how easy it was to buy firearms in PA vs. NJ:


"After being told all I could do was look at Ed's Gun Shop in Deptford, NJ I spent $61 and waited eight weeks and six days just to receive my Firearms Purchaser Identification Card and handgun purchase permit.

... It took half the summer for my new pals at the Haddonfield Police Department to do their duty to serve and protect. In New Jersey, that meant grilling friends I listed as "character references" ... it meant a cop dropped by my house unannounced to ask my husband if he knew of - and approved of - my quest to bear arms.

...In New Jersey, Cho would have had to do a lot more than pass a quick criminal-background check. In NJ, ... Cho would have had to sign a consent form allowing police to review his medical records for mental-health treatment. In NJ, officers would have talked to doctors about whether he was a potential threat to himself or others. "If we feel someone is incompetent or incapacitated," Haddonfield Police Detective Sgt. Gary Pearce told me at the time, "we can deny." This part of the law, Miller explains, is designed "to keep the wrong people from getting their hands on guns."

... But in Virginia, by law, no one had the obligation to probe Cho's past or present woes, so no one did."
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(PA. is a big exporter of guns for criminals because they allow people to buy unlimited number of guns at one time. The next day, they claim they were stolen. A proposal to limit purchases to 2 per month per person hasn't moved at all in the PA. Legislature. You never know when you are going to need to buy more than 24 guns per year.)

[LostinVA]

1. My state from birth-17, and soon to be my state again

Thank the gods.

Gay marriage, gay adoption, anti-bullying laws, and sane gun control laws.

[demnan]

2. I recommended this thread

because you recognized the elephant in the room everyone else has chosen not to see. Thank you. I wrote about this in my Journal and sent a copy to Governor Kaine on Tuesday.

[Solo_in_MD]

3. Are you seriously suggesting going down the road where the police, friends and neighbors get to

determine if you get to excersize your basic rights and freedoms?

[goondogger]

4. You're begging the question

implying that this detracts from "your basic rights and freedom." The 2nd Amendment does provide the right to bear arms, for the purpose of maintaining a WELL REGULATED militia. Regulations and rights can co-exist.

. . . but then that's the crux of the debate, isn't it?

[Solo_in_MD]

6. Not really. Effective self defense is a basic right.

Its in the penumbra of the Constitution even if some do not like the 2nd amendment. That means handguns in todays world.

[-..__...]

5. As if we already don't live in a police state..

:puke:

[virginia mountainman]

7. What about using those same restrictions on the 1st amendment? N-T