proposed laws

PA Bill Number: HB777

Title: In firearms and other dangerous articles, further providing for definitions and providing for the offense of sale of firearm or firearm parts without ...

Description: In firearms and other dangerous articles, further providing for definitions and providing for the offense of sale of firearm or firearm parts without ...

Last Action: Third consideration and final passage (104-97)

Last Action Date: Mar 27, 2024

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Yes, They ARE Coming For Your Guns :: 12/08/2018

Gun grabbers always claim that the newest infringement on the God-given right to self-defense protected by the Second Amendment is in the interest of “public safety” and is not another step down the slippery slope toward gun confiscation and disarming America.

Don’t believe them.

 New Jersey Gun Laws

Earlier this week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has rejected a challenge to New Jersey’s ban on firearm magazines holding more than 10 rounds.

Charles Toutant, writing for the New Jersey Law Journal, reports the appeals court, by a 2-1 margin, said the law limiting high-capacity magazines does not violate the Second Amendment, the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause or the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The court affirmed an order from the U.S. District Court that denied the challengers’ motion to preliminarily enjoin enforcement of the law.

Judges Joseph Greenaway Jr. and Patty Shwartz ruled to affirm the lower court reported Mr. Toutant. Judge Stephanos Bibas, in a 19-page dissenting opinion, called for granting an injunction against enforcement while the state makes its argument that the ban can prevent harm from mass shootings.

The ruling affirms a Sept. 28 decision by U.S. District Judge Peter Sheridan, who refused to enjoin enforcement of the large-capacity magazine ban. He disagreed with the plaintiffs’ argument that limiting magazines to 10 rounds instead of 15 violates their constitutional rights.

Sheridan’s ruling said New Jersey, a densely populated urban state, has a strong interest in regulating firearms reported Toutant. He cited anecdotal evidence from a June 2018 mass shooting at an arts festival in Trenton that lives are saved when a gunman has to stop shooting to reload. Sheridan said a similar phenomenon was seen in the 2012 shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, and at other mass shootings.

Judge Bibas, reported the New Jersey Law Journal, said the majority erred because laws that impair self-defense in the home warrant strict scrutiny, not intermediate scrutiny as the other judges selected. And the law fails the strict scrutiny test, Bibas said.

The ban impairs using guns for self-defense, since the more-frequent reloading necessitated by a smaller magazine “may make guns less effective for ill—but so too for good,” Bibas said in his dissent.

Mr. Toutant reports Judge Bibas also wrote that even under intermediate scrutiny, the law fails under the record of the case. Intermediate scrutiny “requires more concrete and specific proof before the government may restrict any constitutional right, period,” Bibas said in his dissenting opinion.

As one of the plaintiffs in the case, the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs noted, the the final decision on this issue will ultimately rest with the U.S. Supreme Court in the future.

While the plaintiffs and their counsel believe that gun owners will eventually prevail, that process will take time and leaves those gun owners currently lawfully in possession of magazines over 10 rounds with several options to comply with the new law by the deadline, December 10, 2018.

According to guidance given by Scott L. Bach, Esq. and Evan F. Nappen, Esq posted to the ANJRPC website, gun owners are legally required to comply with the new law no later than December 10, 2018.

There is no “grandfather clause.” There are no extensions, delays, or excuses under the new law.  If compliance actions are not taken by December 10, 2018, those who continue to possess magazines over 10 rounds will be in violation of the new law, and subject to fine, imprisonment, and loss of all gun rights.  Failure to follow the new law is a 4th degree crime, and those convicted will have the same status as “convicted felons” and will lose their gun rights for the entire United States.

This means that, on or after December 11, 2018, it is unlawful for NJ gun owners to possess “large capacity magazines” which are boxes, tubes, containers, or drums that feed continuously and directly into a semi-automatic firearm capable of holding, or capable of being modified to hold, over ten (10) rounds of ammunition. 

It does not matter that the magazines were legal when they were acquired.

If it is prohibited under the definition of the new law, it is contraband and unlawful to possess unless you are active law enforcement or military, or retired law enforcement who meets specific qualifications, or it is an attached tubular device which is capable of holding only .22 caliber rimfire ammunition.

While the plaintiffs develop the next steps in the legal strategy New Jersey gun owners who have magazines of 11 to 15 rounds capacity, such as those for the very popular Glock 19, are left with few alternatives:

  • VOLUNTARY SURRENDER
  • RENDER INOPERABLE
  • PERMANENTLY MODIFY TO 10 ROUNDS MAX CAPACITY
  • LAWFUL SALE OR TRANSFER
  • STORAGE OF NON-COMPLIANT MAGAZINES INSIDE NJ
  • STORAGE OF NON-COMPLIANT MAGAZINES OUTSIDE OF NJ

As attorney Evan F. Nappen notes on his website, of course, no real criminal is going to care about this law or obey it. Only law-abiding citizens will comply and be placed at a disadvantage defending themselves and their families. Governor Murphy and the Democrat controlled legislature has decided that you and your loved one’s lives aren’t worth more than 10 rounds. For complete details on the New Jersey “high capacity” magazine ban and the issues associated with compliance go to the website of our friends the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs.

http://www.conservativehq.com/article/29265-yes-they-are-coming-your-guns