PA Bill Number: HB2311
Title: Establishing the School Mental Health Screening Grant and Development Program.
Description: Establishing the School Mental Health Screening Grant and Development Program. ...
Last Action: Laid on the table
Last Action Date: Sep 23, 2024
N.J. gun rights leader questions Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman about her sons gun crimes :: 06/29/2016
TRENTON >> A North Jersey gun rights advocate questioned Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman about her two sons’ armed robbery convictions during a gun violence prevention event in Trenton.
Democratic Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman of Ewing Township (center) hosts a gun violence prevention roundtable event at the Trenton Deliverance Center on Wednesday, June 29, 2016. SULAIMAN ABDUR-RAHMAN — The Trentonian
The two-hour roundtable event Wednesday afternoon featured discussions from clergy members, elected officials and peace activists, including comments from parents who have lost children to gun violence in the city of Trenton, but New Jersey Second Amendment Society President Alexander Roubian generated the biggest reaction with his bold questions.
Roubian was physically removed from the Trenton Deliverance Center by Watson Coleman’s staff after he asked the congresswoman to explain why her children served five years in state prison on charges he said should have garnered 20 years behind bars.
“I’m not taking this,” Watson Coleman said after giving an impassioned defense of her family. “This has nothing to do about anything.”
With several dozen people in attendance in the church’s basement level, some of the attendees shouted, “Shut him down!”
Even as Roubian was being escorted out of the building, he continued to ask Watson Coleman and her staff to answer his questions.
In March 2000, William Carter-Watson and his stepbrother Jared Coleman robbed a Kid-R-Us in Lawrence Township with automatic weapons, stealing $1,800 and terrifying employees by forcing them to lie face down on the floor, according to an archived Trentonian story.
The congresswoman’s sons pleaded guilty to the charges, serving five and a half years in prison.
“It is disgraceful,” Roubian said after being evicted from the house of worship, “especially being in a church and being treated like this.”
Roubian, 34, of West Orange, suggested Watson Coleman’s children “got special treatment,” saying, “They serve only a fraction of the jail time anyone else would serve.”
Roubian described himself as “a concerned citizen who wants to reduce the carnage occurring in the inner cities in America” and accused Watson Coleman of being “hypocritical” for supporting tougher gun laws but not calling for tougher incarceration terms against her sons who had confessed their guilt.
The West Orange man also criticized Watson Coleman for sponsoring legislation in the New Jersey General Assembly that prohibited New Jersey employers from asking job applicants if they have a criminal history. Watson Coleman served in the Assembly from 1998 to 2015 before taking office in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Courtney Cochran, a spokeswoman for Watson Coleman, said the congresswoman “has been a long and staunch supporter of every effort to stop gun violence” and that her stance “predates any issue that her sons had.”
Cochran said the congresswoman “wants to hear everyone’s thoughts” but added, “You can’t come to an event and try to take it over.”
If and when criminals finish serving time behind bars, Watson Coleman supports giving those individuals a second chance to become “productive citizens, paying taxes,” Cochran said. “You can’t do that without a job.”
Roubian’s organization, the New Jersey Second Amendment Society, markets itself as a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization dedicated to protecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners in New Jersey. The organization’s website on Wednesday listed Alexander P. Roubian as its president.
“We are pro-gun-owner, and at the same time, we are anti-criminal,” the New Jersey Second Amendment Society said on its website. “We are for the legal and responsible possession and use of firearms and, at the same time, against the illegal and irresponsible possession and use of firearms. We believe that law-enforcement and honest gun owners are on the same team and should support and protect each other.”
Watson Coleman’s roundtable event was part of a National Day of Action that Democratic lawmakers across the country were observing Wednesday to discuss the issue of gun violence with their constituents. U.S. House Democrats organized the Day of Action following their 26-hour “sit-in” protest on Capitol Hill last week that demanded gun control legislation.
“We had a great event today,” Watson Coleman’s spokeswoman said Wednesday shortly after the roundtable discussion had concluded.
The event sparked emotional comments from multiple speakers.
“These streets of Trenton are the main streets of America,” said Regina Jenkins, whose 19-year-old son Tre Lane was shot and killed Sept. 22, 2012, on the 1100 block of New Willow Street. “All lives matter.”
“I support stricter gun laws, better background checks,” said Azra Baig of the Islamic Society of Central Jersey. She suggested lawmakers should consider raising the minimum age requirement to legally purchase any firearm, saying, “I feel at 18, you are very impulsive.”
Raymond Broach, a retired educator who once served as Trenton’s interim superintendent of schools, said he does not advocate taking away anyone’s Second Amendment rights but that “we are trying to provide everyone with a right to live safely” with “equal protection by the law.”
Retired Trenton cop Luddie Austin, whose 18-year-old son James Austin was fatally gunned down Feb. 26, 2013, suggested gun owners should be required to submit to a firearm audit to account for the weapon or to report whether it has been lost or stolen. “I think that would cut down on a lot of the illegal guns in the street,” he said.
The Rev. Bob Moore of the Coalition for Peace Action said people who commit domestic violence “should not have guns” and said Congress should revive the federal assault weapons ban. In 1994, then-President Bill Clinton signed a measure into law that imposed a 10-year ban on the manufacturing of assault-style weapons.
The congresswoman’s event began with a moment of silence for victims of recent mass shootings. Trenton Councilman-at-Large Duncan Harrison Jr. said Trenton does not have mass shootings but faces “multiple shootings.”
Harrison said people can buy guns from Walmart in neighboring Pennsylvania and bring them into New Jersey, saying that shows “how easy it is” for guns to be brought into the Garden State and used for illegal purposes.
Watson Coleman said the push to get more gun control legislation on the books “is not a moment; it’s a movement.” She said gun control advocates are not naïve enough to think that all acts of gun violence can be prevented but noted that “the common thread here is the wrong people have access to guns.”
“We have an obligation, a responsibility, to look at how we have devolved into this situation,” she said.
Before asking his probing questions, Roubian earlier in the event said gun owners under existing law are already legally obligated to report if their weapon was stolen. He also said a federal background check is conducted on every gun sold at a legitimate gun shop, including Walmart.
