A 2nd Amendment case that should be front page news...

[ChrisDxn]

Steffon Josey-Davis is a 24-year-old NJ man who is now considered a felon when he was pulled over and police said that he was transporting his legal, employer-issued, handgun improperly.

Catch the full story at "The Steffon Josey-Davis 2nd Amendment case in NJ"

[jnichols2]

Even though he screwed up, a felony conviction should result from an intent to do wrong, not from making a mistake.

[mehavey]

Intent becomes moot when a guilty plea is entered, which is what happened here.

I sympathize -- and heartedly dislike NJ just on general principles -- but how is this case different
than any other legal gun owner being found with a concealed weapon, but without a CCW ?

[TDL]

This is why if you are able, even if you do not carry -- get a carry permit. IN my jurisdiction they enforce every possible violation a lot of which are moot with a carry permit.

[leadcounsel]

Wow, after reading that a few thoughts.

1) that font and page color are TERRIBLE. My eyes are still adjusting 30 seconds later!

2) while I feel badly for him, and hope he gets a pardon, chalk this up to a hard lesson learned to follow the law. I hate that particular law, and it needs to be changed, but it's not some secret that carrying a handgun without a permit is illegal, nor is it really a technical violation. He was stupid to offer up the information and should have been driving better. He clearly remembered the gun was in the car, so he shouldn't have been driving with it this way.

3) the "I forgot I had a loaded gun with me" is really a pretty poor excuse.

Again, the law sucks. NJ sucks. This should not be a crime. I hope he gets relief.

[FrankenMauser]

Several other incidents, similar or nearly identical in nature, involving being arrested or cited in New Jersey, were front page news at the time that they occurred.

Whether or not you see it just depends upon where (or how) you get your news.
Mine comes primarily from:
Local paper.
Yahoo! (laugh - it's ironic)
CNN (again... laughter is acceptable)

I've seen multiple stories involving this situation on both online home pages, at at least 2-3 articles in my local paper.

[carguychris]

Originally Posted by leadcounsel

while I feel badly for him, and hope he gets a pardon, chalk this up to a hard lesson learned to follow the law. I hate that particular law, and it needs to be changed, but it's not some secret that carrying a handgun without a permit is illegal, nor is it really a technical violation. He was stupid to offer up the information and should have been driving better. He clearly remembered the gun was in the car, so he shouldn't have been driving with it this way.

+1, and furthermore, as an armed guard, I presume that Mr. Josey-Davis was the holder of a professional license, and is therefore obligated to understand and follow the laws and regulations applicable to his conduct under that license, regardless of how asinine or unfair those laws and regulations may be. IOW the license carries with it an expectation that the license holder will hold himself to a higher standard than the proverbial average Joe.

[Tom Servo]

Following the Shaheen Allen mess (she was convicted but received a pretrial "intervention"), lawmakers in New Jersey have proposed a law that grants judges some discretion on enforcement.

It's not much of an improvement. The Graves act still stands, and judges would still be allowed to hand out maximum sentences as they saw fit.

[jnichols2]

When I visit my daughter in New York, I also go through New Jersey.

When I looked up the laws for both states, Johnny Cash kept singing to me.
"Leave your guns to home son, Leave your guns to home"

[NJgunowner]

Just as an update to this, NJ2AS just sent out an email that Steffon Josey-Davis was pardoned by Christie.

[CowTowner]

I'm glad to hear Gov. Christie exercising his pardon pen in this case.
Now if the voters in that state could get some laws changed.............

[NJgunowner]

Our only recourse is through the courts.

[leadcounsel]

Great to hear he pardoned the guy.

The governor could just make it clear that he's going to pardon everyone convicted of otherwise normal gun behavior, to make the issue for gun control toothless. He'd win the pro-gun side for sure.

Wishful thinking - Press Release: Governor Chrisitie has said that he will use his executive powers to align NJ like Texas, and anyone charged with a NJ gun crime (hollow points, large cap mags, etc.) will be immediately pardoned and not spend a minute in jail, thereby wasting law enforcement and prosecutors efforts.

[Tin Foil]

originally posted by NJgunowner

Our only recourse is through the courts.

Problem is the courts don't write the laws they only enforce them and try to interpret them. The better way is through your legislator. In other words vote these bums out.
The problem with NJ is you are controlled by 'progressives' in the legislature.

My State has the best Governor we have had in 40 + years and the 'progressives' have block him every step of the way, so now he is playing hard ball and vetoing everything. He wanted no State income tax, and they block it, now he wants no permit required to carry. That one might pass cause he is trying to cut a deal where he will release funds to fix some roads and such.

Which I'm on the fence about myself, especially after what it cost me and what I had to go through. However I think what will happen is he will leave it up to the towns, the State only issues if the town is not big enough. So in the end may be a hollow victory for some.

Bottom line is this, this is no longer America. It's only in name.
And the proof of that can also be found in what happens to you if you ever have to use a firearm to defend yourself. We got no rights is this country, merely a set of privileges subject to be revoked at anytime. I sincerely hope I never have to use my firearm, but it's rather pathetic that the system backs us into a corner, if we do we are screwed if we don't where dead.

[Tom Servo]

We do our best to avoid partisan politics here, as they tend to oversimplify complex issues and lead to thread drift.

I'm going to make a narrow exception here. Christie is almost certainly running for President. He'll be doing so on the Republican ticket. That means he has to pay lip-service the the RKBA at a minimum.

That's going to be a problem for him. This is a guy who ran for office in 1995 on the platform of preserving New Jersey's "assault weapon" ban.

He's gotta do something to turn that around. Pardoning Josey-Davis and Shaheen Allen is an olive branch and a hope that memories are short. Notice that he's made no pronunciation on the the injustice of the Graves Act or about the innumerable other people who've had their lives ruined by it.

No matter what the playing field looks like next November (and I predict a circus), take a close look at your candidates. Not just what they're saying now or promising later, but at their entire record on the issue.

[NJgunowner]

NJ isn't going to change through voting, it just isn't. Your average NJ citizen doesn't care one bit about gun rights. A small minority are for gun rights, and bigger minority want them banned out right.

[JERRYS.]

if you want to see U.S.A. 2nd Amendment rights under a President Christie, look at New Jersey 2nd Amendment rights under Governor Christie. he has done nothing to roll back the assault on constitutionally protected 2nd Amendment Rights in the state he governs.

[2ndsojourn]

There is no right to keep & bear arms in the NJ constitution. If there ever was it got deleted by mob rule by north jersey majority in state legislature. They change the constitution willy nilly on a whim constantly. Check out the NJ legislative district map and see why.

[csmsss]

It is, to say the least, a crowded field of pretenders in the Republican primary. It remains to be seen whether firearms issues become prominent in the campaign. I'm not sure it's a truly winning issue for any of them at this point.