In This State, Buying a Toy Gun Gets You Time in Jail

New Jersey may be known as the Garden State, but it's home to some of America's worst cities. The condition of Jersey's urban wastelands was perhaps best described by Tea Party darling Steve Lonegan, who in a debate with Corey Booker noted the prevalence of "the bodies from shooting victims" floating in Booker's Newark.

Still, the Garden State isn't called the Garden State for nothing. Many parts of New Jersey are beautiful, and filled with successful, responsible property owners who banded together and elected the nation's largest Republican Governor. Chris Christie has had two terms to fix some of the state's biggest problems, But despite a clear mandate from the people, he's been unable(or unwilling) to attack some of the state's most insane gun laws. Now, an actor who was performing with a pellet gun may be facing time in prison. As Hot Air notes:

How insane are New Jersey’s gun laws? Governor Chris Christie has had to issue two general pardons in order to stop or reverse gross miscarriages of justice over nonsensical prosecutions. Will Christie go for the hat trick? Carlo Goias had better hope so, before he does a ten-year stretch in prison because he used a pellet gun while making a film in the Garden State:

Carlo Goias, whose stage name is Carlo Bellario, was charged under New Jersey’s strict gun law. It requires permits for firearms, including the airsoft gun Goias used while filming a car chase scene.

Goias rejected a plea deal offer Tuesday that could have sent him to jail for less than a year. He faces up to a decade behind bars because of prior felony convictions that prosecutors say include theft and burglary.

“I was shooting a movie — I wasn’t committing a crime intentionally,” Goias recently told The Associated Press. “Robert De Niro doesn’t ask Marty Scorsese is if he has gun permits. We’re actors. That’s for the production company to worry about.”

Some state lawmakers say the case highlights the need for New Jersey to change its gun laws.

Some say? It’s true that Goias hasn’t exactly been an angel, and with his record, no state would allow him to possess firearms. However, in other states, no one would have accused Goias of doing so. A pellet gun does not use gunpowder, so it’s not a firearm — except in New Jersey. The Airsoft gun Goias had doesn’t even fire metal pellets — it fires nonlethal plastic pellets under power of compressed air. It’s a prop, not a threat.

And so it goes. Liberal blue states racked by urban crime penalizing law abiding citizens for phantom crimes and depriving them of the right to defend themselves. Shame on you, New Jersey!



Source: AAN