Governor Chris Christie’s office responded to a constituent who had written in support of Shaneen Allen with a phone call stating that the separation of powers prevents the Governor from intervening in the Atlantic County prosecution.
Allen is a 27 year old single mother who is facing a possible 10 years in State Prison for bringing her Pennsylvania licensed handgun into New Jersey. She is being prosecuted by Atlantic County Prosecutor James McClain, a Christie appointee. McClain refused to allow Allen to enter the same Pre-Trial Intervention Program for first offenders that former Baltimore Ravens star Ray Rice was admitted to after he knocked out his then fiancee in an Atlantic City casino elevator last February.
Last week, McClain requested a three week adjournment in the case. This was seen as a sign by Allen’s supporters that McClain is reconsidering his decision to prosecute due to the public outcry since the video of Rice beating his fiancee became public.
In the call from Christie’s office this afternoon to James Hogan of Howell Township, a young sounding man left a message stating that he was calling from the Governor’s office. Hogan forwarded the message to MMM:
Former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was released by the NFL team today and suspended indefinitely by the league as a result of the public outrage at the video of Rice knocking out his then fiancee that was released by TMZ this morning.
Clearly, the NFL’s move is a public relations and business decision. NFL officials had seen the video prior to suspending Rice for only 2 games and docking his pay for a third.
One has to wonder if Atlantic County Prosecutor James McClain would have accepted Rice into the Pre-Trial Intervention Program had the video become public before the former Rutgers star was given leniency. Rice had been indicted on third degree aggravated assault charges after clocking his wife. The prosecutor said there was enough evidence for a conviction even without Mrs. Rice’s cooperation. Presumably he meant the video. Rice faced five years in prison, but McClain accepted him into the Pre-Trial Invention Program for first offenders. If Rice stays out of trouble until May of next year, he is off the hook, legally, for the assault.
Gov. Christie was absolutely correct in vetoing the Legislature’s magazine-limit bill, despite Sandy Hook-parent Hugo Rojas’ protestations to the contrary. The bill was not only trivial, but it was cynical to boot since it did nothing but regurgitate the long-standing agenda of gun control advocates in New Jersey without addressing what really was at the heart of the Newtown, CT tragedy: defenseless children and teachers left at the mercy of a deranged individual who should have been locked up.
If you want to solve problems, the first key is correctly identifying them, not trotting out tired, politically correct memes that pander to sentimentality. It’s obvious that a big problem at Sandy Hook – a problem lawmakers in New Jersey ignore and perpetuate today – is defenseless schools.
Another problem is the hands-off attitude taken by local and state officials and law enforcement against mentally ill people who, like Adam Lanza, have a long, documented and scary track record of violent behavior yet are allowed to walk the streets.
Ignoring the real problems in favor of political pandering is what the Legislature did with the magazine-limit bill. Gov. Christie was right to veto it, and Mr. Rojas’ is mistaken in his criticism.
Calling a bill that would have reduced permitted ammunition magazine sized from 15 rounds to 10 “reform in name only,” Governor Chris Christie conditionally vetoed A2006 this afternoon.
In his conditional veto message, Christie said the bill follows the well worn path of empty rhetoric, political self-promotion and polarizing intolerance in the face of violent crimes committed with guns:
“Difficult choices are brushed aside
in favor of empty rhetoric. Uncomfortable topics are left
unexplored, while easy soundbites and videoclips are packaged
for consumption. Appropriate empathy for victims, and their
suffering survivors, blurs with politics and elected officials’
self-promotion to create a polarizing intolerance. We ignore
the hard for the expedient, the controversial for the safely
familiar, and the costly for those cheaply recycled answers that
never really address the root causes.”
Christie sent the legislation back to the General Assembly as a bill that he says addresses violence by fixing critical short comings and crack in the mental healthcare system.
By Ernesto Cullari (originally published in triCityNews)
There have been seventeen victims of shootings this year in Asbury Park and five murders. According to some reports we are on track to match violence levels not seen in 20 years. People on both sides of the train tracks are scared.
I’ve read many opinions about how to stop the violence among our youth in Asbury Park and in other cities, where poverty is an issue and most of the solutions focus on more government and more police intervention.
It isn’t government intervention or the threat of jail time that makes a person stop in the moment of anger and refrain from pulling a trigger. Laws don’t prevent kids from joining gangs. Government programs won’t stop a 14-year-old boy from engaging in unprotected premarital sex with a young girl his age and the government certainly won’t raise their child; The government doesn’t teach our youth about the value of human life; but parents do, good role models do too and the Bible does, as well.
Did Martin Luther King, Jr. quote from some government handbook handed down from Valerie Jarrett and Kathleen Sebelius when he faced down both the rising influence of the Black Panthers and social oppressors or did he quote from scripture? If we’re going to rely simply on more government programs, more police and new political initiatives to fix the rising tide of violence in our communities then we’ve failed before we’ve begun. If Christianity, shared in the public square, changed the world then its message certainly can help change the course of our societal problems now. To think otherwise is to ignore the last 2013 years of Western history.
In the aftermath of the Newtown, Connecticut school massacre in December of 2012, many politicians moved to give the appearance of doing something about gun control. My heart continues to brake for the families who will always feel an emptiness in their life. New Jersey politicians were not immune from the pressure of passing gun control bills. I was opposed to new laws and urged others to join me in opposition. The thirteen bills passed by the New Jersey legislature that landed on Governor Christie’s desk did little to address the real issues and did nothing to prevent a similar massacre from reoccurring.
Last week Governor Christie addressed the last three of the thirteen bills. The first ten bills were signed into law by the republican governor. The National Rifle Association classified 2 of the 10 as a benefit to gun owners and two were opposed by NRA. I remain opposed to the signing of those 2 bills. The remaining six bills had a negligible impact on gun owners and were not opposed. This week Gov. Christie Vetoed and returned the remaining 3 of the 13 bills. Of all thirteen bills the three remaining bills were most intrusive and an offense to the Constitution and violated Liberty. My family and I are proud gun owners and members of the NRA and New Jersey Second Amendment Society (NJ2AS). I urge all good patriots who support the 2nd Amendment by joining either or both organizations.
I want to thank and applaud Governor Christie for vetoing the remaining gun control bills because I truly believe when you take guns away from law abiding citizens; you empower the criminals and embolden the government against the citizenry. Thank you Governor for defending the 2nd amendment and standing with 1 million lawful gun owners in New Jersey who are law abiding citizens, because to punish the innocent along with the guilty is no justice at all.
Governor Christie Puts Forward Comprehensive and Common Sense Plan to Strengthen Existing Gun Laws and Background Checks, Bolster Criminal Penalties and Target and Treat the Root Causes of Mass Violence
Building on New Jersey’s already strong guns laws that rank among the toughest in the country, Governor Chris Christie has a comprehensive and responsible action plan to help reduce gun violence. The plan focuses on four distinct areas:
Responsibly Expanding New Jersey’s Already Stringent Gun Control Measures
Making Mental Health Treatment And Screening Mandatory For Those Who Need It Most, And Making It Easier For Health Professionals To Order Treatment For Individuals In Crisis
Addressing The Influence Of Violence In Video Games On Today’s Youth By Requiring Parental Consent
Bolstering Criminal Penalties For Gun-Related Crimes And Reforming Bail Laws To Keep Our Most Violent Offenders Out Of Our Communities
RESPONSIBLY EXPANDING NEW JERSEY’S ALREADY STRINGENT GUN CONTROL MEASURES
U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg returned to the Senate floor in a wheelchair today, after a six week absence due to muscle fatigue caused by cancer treatments, in order to give gun control advocates a the deciding vote in legislation that would expand the use of background checks for gun purchasers. The legislation failed, 54-46. Sixty votes were required for passage. Other gun control measures failed in the Senate today by wider margins.
Four Democrats voted against the background check amendment. Four Republicans voted for it.
Obama, Senate Democrats, NBC, CBS, CNN, ABC, the New York Times, et al, as well as Barbara Buono and Sheila Oliver in Trenton, have been pushing to further restrict the right to bear arms since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown on December 14 of last year.
Today’s legislative failure by Obama and the left is a victory for law abiding gun owners and the 2nd Amendment.
Today could be marked as the beginning of the lame duck phase of Obama’s presidency.
Most Americans don’t care, according to a Gallup poll released on Monday. Only 4% of Americans think guns are a major problem. Yet Washington and the national media have been consumed with the issue for the last four months.
In this remarkable video, Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris) questions Assemblywoman Linda Stender on her bill, A3687, which would prohibit citizens on the federal terrorist watch list from receiving permits to purchase firearms in New Jersey
The bill passed the General Assembly 63-3, with 3 legislators not voting and 10 abstaining.
Click here to view the Assembly Roll Call on the bill.
Republican committee members voted against most of the measures.
Assemblyman Sean Kean (R-Monmouth) was the exception; he supported several of the bills and did his best to claim the “common-sense” mantle in his post-hearing statement:
