Posted on 07/15/2008 7:20:24 PM PDT by neverdem
Caught speeding in Highland Park in April in his father's Acura RSX, Ryan Narciso found out the hard way about a recent change in a New Jersey gun law that could send him to prison for three years.
The 20-year-old sales clerk at a shop at Menlo Park Mall and former Middlesex County College student had a pellet handgun in the car, according to an indictment filed last week in Superior Court, New Brunswick.
The gun, a Gamo P-23, was sitting under the rear window of the 2004 coupe. Looking like a larger-caliber handgun, the firearm drew a quick response from the bicycle-patrol officer who stopped Narciso for doing 40 mph in a 25-mph zone. With gun drawn, the officer arrested him.
Narciso's father, an architect, bought the pellet gun at a garage sale a few years ago to fend off squirrels that made their way into the attic of the families home on Mount Pleasant Avenue in Edison, the father and Narciso's lawyer, Amilcar Perez of Perth Amboy, said.
Under a new state law, Narciso's possession of the weapon qualifies as a Graves Act offense. Narciso could face what prosecutors and criminal defense attorneys call a "hard three," meaning three years with no prospect of parole.
But a state official Wednesday acknowledged that the draconian measure made its way into law by mistake.
Stiffening the law
The Graves Act, adopted in 1981 and named after Frank X. Graves Jr., the late state senator and law-and-order mayor of Paterson known for patroling the city, outlined mandatory-minimum prison sentences for anyone guilty of using a gun in the commission of a crime in New Jersey. A burglar caught with a handgun, for instance, faced a solid three years behind bars for the gun crime alone.
With little or no fanfare, lawmakers stiffened the Graves Act in the last session. They folded the amendment into anti-gang legislation that Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed into law in January.
Now, the simple unlawful possession of any firearm can bring mandatory penalties for anyone who pleads guilty to or is convicted of that crime alone.
The law does not trigger hard time in each case.
As the law stands, Narciso could avoid prison if he enters a pretrial-intervention program, allowing him to eventually erase his criminal record, or benefits from a narrow alternative for probation under the Graves Act. But the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office could block the first of those possibilities and must initiate the second.
A 50-year-old businessman from Somerset County faces longer odds for gaining such mercy. Police charged the man in a drunken-driving accident this year. While investigating, officers found an unsecured handgun the man had just lawfully purchased.
"It was unboxed in his car," said his attorney, Blair Zwillman of Woodbridge.
Because of the change to the Graves Act, the businessman is now looking at a 5-year minimum prison term, Zwillman said. He declined to provide his client's name.
Steven Altman, a New Brunswick criminal-defense attorney, said the stiffer gun law casts a wide net.
"It is going to impact a great many people who have nothing to do with gangs," he said.
But the businessman and Narciso may not face any hard time.
"Huge mistake'
Neither Narciso, nor his father knew they broke the law by having the gun without a firearms registration card, both men said.
"If we knew it was illegal, my dad never would have gotten it," Narciso said.
And it proved ineffective in controlling the problem in the attic, they said.
"That gun couldn't even kill a squirrel," the father, Emiliano Narciso, said.
Regardless of the change to the Graves Act, possession of the pellet gun is still a crime that can theoretically bring three to five years in prison, but rarely means incarceration for first-time offenders. Past offenders would likely see several months of jail at most.
Narciso has never had a brush with the law.
His father said his son was recently playing with the gun and threw it in the back of the car. Ryan Narciso said he forgot it was there.
Despite the revelations about the confused legislation, Ryan Narciso, who hopes to return to college to study fashion or product design, did not seem relieved Thursday outside his home where he lives with his siblings and parents.
"Every time I think about it, I think of what a huge mistake it was," Narciso said. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused."
Ken Serrano: (732) 565-7212; kserrano@mycentraljersey.com
So they hit you with basically a half a year's property tax, for the privilege of moving out of their worker's paradise!I take it that it is like the European VAT - which you pay on sale but get rebated on your next purchace provided that it is in-state.
Pretty. </sarcasm>
Probably functions as an estate tax on real property, too. A tax on retirement and death. What is not to like - provided that you are a Democrat politician?
He's SORRY for the trouble that HE caused?! @sswipe - he should be OUTRAGED that the fascist PRNJ has outlawed what kids have owned for generations (and still do, in free states).
I was stunned by his wimpish attitude as well, then I saw that he’s going to college to study “fashion” and it all made perfect sense.
Well, I’ve never actually tried it out on a live test subject. But if you really want to know, you can come by my place and I’ll gladly roll the video and test it on you .... and we’ll see if it is as effective as it looks .... And I’ll post the video on uTube and you can have 15 minutes of fame ... :)
There are easier ways to get into a Weezer video.
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Residents of New Jersey can buy bb guns through a designated local gun store after acquiring an Airgun Permit.
Cite from New Jersey law: "A 'firearm' means any handgun, rifle, shotgun, air gun, gas gun, machine gun, or 'any gun'."
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Thanks for the link & info.
New Jersey is completely and utterly FUBAR.
You’d be like, “I’m home.” I moved fm. NJ to Stamford. Gun laws, while not like TX or MT are far and away better than NJ.
***I Moved to rural NJ, worked in manhatten for a few years and Now I make mad money.***
Jim Cramer?
:)
What were you carrying on you if I may ask, that your wife couldn’t believe it?
What in the gibbering hell is going on over there?
I was born in Paterson and lived there in the 50s. It wasn’t always like that. Everyone left their car doors unlocked then. My old man ran for mayor there I believe in 1959 as an independent. He used to plow the streets in the winter to clear snow. It was one of those snowstorms that made records. Anyway a deal was cut and he dropped out of the race. He became commisioner of youth guidance.
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