Officer's arrest spotlights assault weapon law [NJ]

NJ.com (Newark Red Star Ledger) ^ | Tuesday, May 20, 2003 | MATTHEW J. DOWLING

[jjm2111]

The prosecution of a former Far Hills police sergeant on charges that he illegally owned an assault weapon has raised questions about the extent that law enforcement officers are exempt from New Jersey's 1990 assault weapons ban.

The case against former Sgt. Kenneth Moose centers on whether police officers are allowed to possess assault weapons listed as banned under the law or only those weapons that pertain to their official police duties, such as machine guns issued to SWAT team officers.

[jjm2111]

I searched and didn't see this, but it's a couple of weeks old. IMO, cops should not have larger weapons than the citizenry.

[Blood of Tyrants]

An M1 carbine is an AW in New Jersey? You gotta be kidding.

[Fee]

Living in NJ where high capacity mags are banned, and have a sizeable Arab immigre population in the city of Patterson and across the Hudson River in NYC, I would want our law enforcement to have the ability to personally own the banned assualt weapons. In a given time of day, most police officers in our suburbs are off duty. If Arab terrorist decided to strike a soft target, atleast under the current situation, someone on our street (a police officer or state trooper) can augment his firepower to assist the rest of the gunowners (with firepower limited by the NJ laws) on the street in confronting the attackers.

[Blood of Tyrants]

P.S. I would claim that the NJ law violates his 2A right to keep and bear arms.

[Drew68]

Ping to the Bang List for firearms related articles.

[hobbes1]

I would also like to see how poorly the statute is constructed.

Knowing that the Average NJ legislator, has about the same amount of intellectual canndlepower as a piece of granite, well...I am sure you can se where this is going /rant

[T. Jefferson]

Moose was suspended from the five-member Far Hills police force in August pending a psychiatric evaluation

Pretty much sums up most of the NJ Nazi police forces.

[Pearls Before Swine]

"There can be no rational basis for treating citizen-police officers differently from all other New Jersey residents and permit the secret acquisition and private possession of unregistered assault firearms that have no connection to law enforcement," Murphy wrote in his brief.

Murphy's Law is right on this. The problem is that the law itself is wrong, and the NJ citizens should have their 2nd amendment rights. In any case, there shouldn't be a big disparity between what one state (NJ here) thinks are "assault" weapons and what everyone else understands them to be.

[glock rocks]

don't fret. they won't take your deer rifle, they'll classify it as a "sniper rifle" first.

[SERE_DOC]

When I moved here to NJ, I went to the local LEO and they stated that NJ is a state where you do not have to register weapons, he gave me the forms to register if I wanted to.

[jjm2111]

Then why not let citizens have them? How many off duty cops are there in one particular location and time.

Even if they have these weapons in their home, they do not go around with them.

[jjm2111]

If you have a FOID in NJ and you move within the state, do you have to tell them you're new address?

[mil-vet]

As a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Cosa Nostra, NJ can ill-afford to allow it's citizenry to have significant weaponry because some misguided citizen might interevene in some offer otherwise impossible to refuse.....

Thank goodness I came to my senses in 1966 and left all those gardens to see the world!

[wjcsux]

Another reason not to have anything to do with NJ.

[LouD]

From the article: There can be no rational basis for treating citizen-police officers differently from all other New Jersey residents

You seem to think that it is OK for police officers to enjoy greater rights than the rest of us. A police officer is provided with the weapons necessary to do his/her job, therefore any guns owned by an LEO would be primarily for personal use. Why should a police officer have the right to personal use of weapons that the rest of us are denied?

The article gets it wrong: There can be no rational basis for denying law-abiding citizens their rights under the 2nd Amendment.

[jjm2111]

My brother already left, and I'm not far behind.

[SwinneySwitch]

A gun is as good or as bad as the man who uses it. - Shane

[oyez]

You gotta be kidding.

Many states have jokes for firearms laws. It a crying shame that decent citizens are being criminalized by such nonsense. Be sure that your own state house dosen't adopt a warped sense of humor..

[Darksheare]

According to New Jersey, a Ruger 10/22 with a ten round clip could be considered an AW.
Depends on who you got mad that day.

[SkyPilot]

"Police officers have always been exempt."

"Gutten Tag!"