Posted on 03/07/2006 5:09:58 AM PST by tcostell
I was having a look around http://www.gunbroker.com/ and I came across a cheap little .22 caliber AK knockoff. It doesn't have any of functional features of a traditional AK, it's just a cute little pop gun in an AK wrapper. It was made in the PI and called an AK "trainer". I was thinking of buying it as a toy, on the assumption that it would be worth $150 or so for all the laughs it would get at the range.
Well it turns out the while the federal assault weapons ban may have gradfathered, we have our own vaguely defined assualt weapons ban in NJ as well. I've tried to determine if that ridiculous little gun is on the list, and the fact is, no one can tell me. Given I was buying it as a joke, I guess I'll have to pass this time, but it raises a broader issue:
Can anyone tell me if a particular gun is legal or illegal in NJ? Reading the NRA view of the legislation, even a Garand M1 Carbine constitutes an illegal firearm, but some AR type firearms are legal because they are 'match grade'.
Can anyone point me to a list of info where the details of the law are explained or do I really have to call a lawyer every time I want to buy a gun?
This state is just nuts.......
Thanks in advance.
IMHO, there is no such thing as an "illegal" gun. Only illegal gun laws.........
contact impactguns.com i'm sure they can help you out.
Caliber does not have anything to do with the definition on an assult rifle in NJ. A BB gun with those attributes such as pistal grip, flash supressor and so forth are used to define assult rifle in NJ. Many people who live in states other than NJ would laugh if you told them that you need and NJ firearms purchase permit to even inspect a BB gun in a NJ gun store. I remember being shocked the first time I saw BB guns, sling shots and shotgun shells available right on the shelf in a PA Walmart store.
I have been out of NJ for almost 2 years now and almost forget how bad it was. Now, just over the border in PA, I have several carry weapons and I'm thinking about getting an AK47 with high cap magazine, just because you can here. Last weekend I was shopping in a hardware store that has a large gun department. Some of the employees were open carry in the store, the rest concealed. It is night and day the difference between the two states.
I don't mean to gloat, but you should know that life outside of NJ is way different. Another thing...dues to belong to a gun club. When I lived in NJ, I belonged to a fairly nice private gun club. The dues was $200.00/year plus 2 work days. Nice place, but I now belong to 3 gun clubs here, the most expensive is $40.00/ year. One club that has everything my old NJ club has and more costs $15.00 yearly dues plus $10.00/year to fish in the lake, for $200.00 you can get a life membership in this club.
Well, if NJ is anything like CT it won't matter. Here in CT, if the gun says Kalashnikov, it's illegal. Because we all know a word on the side of a gun makes it that much deadlier. Which is why I own an SAR-2.
I already own a bunch and have lived in NJ for years. I have plenty of firearms knowledge but the gun laws in NJ are just silly and follow no internally consistent logic.
It's crazy.
My father gave me a AR15 .22 knock-off. It also was made in the Philippines.
Mine is really fun to shoot and cheap. It is amazingly accurate.
Hope you get to own and shoot your gun in NJ.
But I'd really rather not add in the cost of a lawyer for every purchase.
But I'd really rather not add in the cost of a lawyer for every purchase.
I think that's the same company....I have an old Savage 22 from the 1940's with a weaver scope that I use for plinking, but I thought something like this would be fun.
Anyhow, good luck.
I was hoping there was some legal service ( for the NRA or some such) which had done the boots on the ground analysis of it for free and posted the data online so I don't have to pay a lawyer to look it over.
tcostell,
Do you have a copy of Evan Nappen's book on NJ gun laws? If you don't, get it, it is about $25.00 and the best money a NJ gun owner can spend. That book is one of the reasons why I decided to get out of NJ.
I know that it costs more to do things in NJ and that is one of the reasons why gun club dues costs more. OK, but in the area I now live in (pocono mtn, carbon county) there are gun clubs every where you look. My favorite one has all the facilities, outdoor rifle/pistol, indoor range archery, trap, skeet, everything plus a lake and at $15.00 year no less. I can even shoot my gun in my back yard if I wanted to.
Walk into the Carbon County sheriff office, give proof of residency and in 30 minutes you have a CCW license laminated in plastic. Go to a gun show and buy just about anything that is legal. How many gun shows are there in NJ? A NICS check will get you a handgun, no waiting 6 months and $45.00 for a NJ pistol purchase permit.
I lived in NJ for 45 of my 47 years and guns were a way of life for my family when we were kids. I mean my family was and is still to some extent well known in small bore compeditave circles. But when it really sinks in the difference between the laws and atitudes between a gun friendly state such as PA and a gun unfirendly state such as NJ it will really make your head hurt. Life long residents of NJ just have no idea, I know I didn't.
Two weeks ago we had the local police chief over to our house with an investigator looking into a problem my daughter is having with a computer "friend". While the computer expert was talking to my daughter and looking at her on line issues, the police chief and I were discussing guns. All kinds of guns and CCW issues and believe me it was a very friendly conversation, almost unreal. This kind of discussion would not have taken place between the chief of police in the NJ town I grew up in and my dad, who was the chief's son's rifle coach and this kid had as many as 6 national Jr. rifle records at the time.
Just to say, it's a different world out there and when you are in the NJ onclave, it is hard to see or believe how the rest of the country works with respect to gun laws and attitudes.
I am sorry to report that Nappen's book is out of print and completely unavailable. When I spoke to his office over 1.5 years ago, I was told that there was no plan for another printing and in that time there hasn't been one. Nappen has reportedly since moved to New Hampshire to join the free state project.
It took me over a year to get a copy of Nappen II for myself and it was only by moaning to every NJ gunnie I knew that I eventually found someone who owned 2 copies and was willing to sell me one.
NJ is indeed a different world and one problem is that everyone flees rather than gets involved or even donates a red cent to the cause. Maybe the problem is as you say that NJ residents just don't know what they've lost or are aware of the level oppression under which we live here.
I'm a PA native and look forward to the day I can return home to my native Pennsyltucky and end enjoy life as a citizen rather than an inmate.
The thing is, New Jersey is not just an isolated a world away whose problems can be escaped from. You see, a lot of the gun control innovations we see in the US originate in New Jersey. The assault weapons and high-cap magazine bans were first passed in New Jersey. New Jersey has the smart gun law that is being whispered about in other state houses and may soon become reality. NJ is a problem that in the future can have an unfortunate spill over effect on the rest of the country.
Lately, PA has been a hotbed for state level anti-gun initiatives, which thankfully so far have not yet gained much traction. A lot of the focus on PA is the direct result of NJ gun control nuts that have set their sites on PA as the next domino they want to fall.
Right now as we speak, they are rabble rousing to limit handgun purchases in PA to 1 a month.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/13848930.htm
Rendell himself is intimately connected to gun control extremists. In fact, he was the first US city mayor to suggest that cities sue gun manufacturers. A lot of this attention of the gun control lobby is coming at you directly out of New Jersey.
One of NJ's main anti-gun activists, Bryan Miller of the CeaseFireNJ, a guy intimately connected with anti-gun democrats in this state such as Torricelli, Loretta Weinberg, and Corzine himself, is also very active across the Delaware in PA. In fact, he is the exec director of CeaseFirePA, an organization so much better funded than we could ever hope to be. Don't believe me? Look at this page. They have a $25,000 donation just from one fellow extremist with deep pockets (George Soros?).
http://www.ceasefirepa.org/membership.htm
You may escape New Jersey, but New Jersey isn't satisfied for you to get away and enjoy your liberties elsewhere. A stand must be taken in this state but unfortunately; we have been all but abandoned by the NRA.
The problem is, when we get down to it, our greatest enemies are NJ gun owners. We constantly find that NJ gun owners are either too apathetic (we have heard many times, things like, "it's not a big deal, if they take my gun I'll find another hobby/take up fishing"). There is also too much antagonism between different groups of gun owners. We find that black rifle shooters don't care that much about handgun or CCW rights. Skeet shooters/fowl hunters don't care about anything but their shotgun. Hunters in general tend to be happy with any gun control so long as they have sportsmen’s exemptions. The NJCSD is a big tent organization that represents all gun owners to protect our human right to self-defense and the right of ownership of the tools of self-defense and we do not compromise on that principle.
We can use any and all support we can get.
http://www.njcsd.org
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