mpe

Bought 5/2 Picked up 5/18 16 days

I had taken the days off to come to both hearings this week. After attending the Assembly hearing; where the public was blatantly disrespected followed up by the somewhat improved, but still completely biased and absolutely disheartening action on Tuesday, I took NJ2AS's message that we need to find other means of getting our message across to heart today. On the one hand, I somewhat agree with Sgt Toadette's post in the 4/29 thread about us doing more harm than good at these hearings. On the other hand, why even have a 'hearing' if the intention is to not hear the public? While anger really is a useless emotion - in this case it does seem justified. How can they 'vote' when they had yet to hear the entirety of the public's testimony? Fact is - they really didn't need to 'vote' at all. Sham. All. The. Way. So today, rather than attend the 'hearing', I regressed to a philosophy I held very strongly in my younger days. The only vote that matters is the FINANCIAL one. I went out and voted with my WALLET. Bought the wife a Ruger Mk III (maybe she'll have it by Mothers Day- although that's probably a bit too 'instant'), picked up a couple boxes of pigeons. Couple cases of Joe Biden endorsed ammo for the 12 gauge. Got some small pistol primers. Ordered some .223 projectiles from Midway. Did the NRA Round up to the nearest $10. Think I'm going to go put in for some new permits tomorrow, even though at the moment I don't have anything on the wish list. Make 'em work for it ya know. Every time I hear the anti's talk about the NRA being a multi-billion dollar lobbying machine - I smile inside. A few of the cogs in that machine have my initials on them. They see the power of the financial ballot - and it casts a long shadow of fear into their hearts. They may not understand the Second Amendment, but they understand dollars. So until we all can vote in the polls in November - let's keep voting with our wallets. Lets see if we can get NICS behind by 48 days! Make em hire more! Create jobs. Buy an American made firearm. If you don't like American guns, buy a foreign one - from your local gun shop! Let's all keep doing our part to perpetuate the ammo shortage! Hoard away Sisters and Brothers! Let's make all the local PD's start buying Airsoft for practice!! Get your friends and neighbors to apply for their FID's. Sign up for a class, clinic or competition! Sign up for two! Buy some reloading supplies. Even if you don't reload, consider it an investment in your future. Send a few bucks to NJ2AS. Buy another cog in the NRA machine! You can be sure I'll keep writing and faxing and calling and emailing. Even though I know it falls on deaf ears. And I'll vote in November, even though I know my vote is wasted. But what I really need to do is find a way to earn a 'profit or loss' from my activities in the shooting sports, so I can deduct all the above expenses on my tax returns (legally and honestly of course, perhaps I can find an accountant at the range). That's what they understand. So in lieu of angry testimony today - I bought a gun. I'd strongly encourage any other disheartened pro-2A souls to go out and do the same. Be patient, hoard some ammo, and then enjoy the hell out it at your favorite range. Living well is the best revenge.

Am I missing something on the mag limit bill? I don't see the mag limit bill on Thursdays agenda - only thing to do w/ mags at the moment looks to except 22's that can be loaded w/ more than 15 rounds: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2012/Bills/S3000/2735_I1.HTM Is there a hidden agenda somewhere? As disheartening as it has been to sit through these hearings - I do think it would have been alot worse if we didn't

How much is it costing me to pay them to listen to this ? No wonder the state is bankrupt..

That would be a minor whiff of sanity in an otherwise insane sham. Or maybe they're actually reading all the faxes/emails they've gotten recently. One can only dream...

Done

New to the forum - so hopefully this is appropriate... Draft of my letter to the Ass Chair - which I'll cc the entire commitee and Gov. Haven't clicked send yet.. but finger is on the trigger so to speak. Assm Mainor, I"m writing today as a formerly apathetic citizen who used to be fairly content with the status quo. Never got involved in any hot button politics and frankly only came out to vote once every four years in presidential elections. That all changed this Wednesday. I came to Trenton because something just didn't smell right with jamming these 24 bills through a 3 hour 'hearing' which all seemed designed to relieve me of my freedom. The way you ran that 'hearing' was an absolute travesty. Can I ask WHY you even held it in the first place? From the outset your intention to ignore the public was clear. 24 bills in 3 hours using the 'small' room. You really didn't care to 'hear' from the public at all - did you ??? Your mind was made up, and this 'hearing' was merely a tedious formality that needed to be dispensed with as quickly as possible. So I assert - the way you set this entire 'hearing' up was a blatant and intense DISRESPECT of the both the public and your sworn duty. Now I see email responses about why you chose to ignore the public coming out of your office saying: I did try, but at the meeting the crowd began to disrespect me and at that time I stopped paying attention. By responding that way, I may have missed the testimony that would have allowed me to see things differently. Let's remember who disrespected who Sir ! - 24 bills in 3 hours is a disrespect! - Telling the public every speaker gets two minutes - until the first pro-bill speaker took the stand and got over 4 and a half minutes is a disrespect! - Setting up the meeting so the votes would take place before all the testimony was heard (from those that checked 'Opposed to All') is a GIANT disrespect! You only have yourself and your conduct to thank for any 'disrepect' you may have felt in that room, and you set yourself up for that well before the 'hearing' even started ! You trampled the process from the beginning. It is my feeling you violated the most fundamental spirit of a democratic government on so many levels that you are DUTY BOUND to RECALL EVERY ONE of these imperfect (as referred to by Assm Coleman-Wilson) bills and START OVER. Now that the 'respect' rant is over - and hopefully you have not 'stopped paying attention' yet - let's look at why I feel these bills are FUNDAMENTALLY FLAWED: More than anything else - what struck me about these bills was there was not a single mention of CRIMINAL USE of weapons. All these bills target LAW ABIDING citizens. Mention was made of 'gun alley' on the NJ Turnpike. Do you really believe ANY of these bills will have the least effect on black market arms and ammunition dealers moving illegal product, into, out of and across our state? - Will these people comply with your request to 'register ammunition sales'? - Will they conduct background checks on their black market customers ?? - And will those black market customers renew their FID cards with photos on them ??? Before you proceed ANY FURTHER with these bills - you owe it to yourself and the public you serve to ask: - How do any of these bills address CRIMINAL activity? - How do any of these bills help the mentally ill get the HELP they need? - How do any of these bills re-enforce the inalienable rights of individuals to enjoy and defend life and liberty? To pursue and obtain safety? These bills are all about the REMOVAL of the rights of law abiding citizens. These bills have missed the mark by such a wide margin - YOU MUST RECALL THEM. You should never have had to have seen me sitting in YOUR hearing this Wednesday. I was the apathetic one. Just content enough to stay lazy. You changed all that when you hijacked OUR Hearing. I'm a voting member of the public - and I've been awakened. You can be sure I'll be voting in my local and state elections at every opportunity. To paraphrase one of the exceedingly rare pro-bill supporters in the room Wednesday: all they need to do now is 'push the button' and I'll be right there facing you again ! I urge you to do the right thing. It takes a big person to admit they made a mistake and need to start over. But that is exactly what you and the Public Safety Committee need to do. RECALL THESE DEFECTIVE BILLS IMMEDIATELY! Respectfully, [name, city and phone]

Hi Everyone, Decided it was time to stop lurking and formally join the community after attending yesterday's Assembly meeting. What a travesty that was. I'm 48 years old and haven't been in a government building like that since my 8th grade class trip. Never got involved in any type of political issues or activism. Voted for both major parties with a smattering of Independent over my voting career. Had to go Libertarian the last presidential election. Never really cared enough to pay attention to local or state politics at all. Until yesterday. I've enjoyed shooting off and on since I was in Boy Scouts nearly 40 years ago. Got back into it a little more seriously when I saw my son shooting at his first Boy Scout summer camp last year. He had some great success and most of all, really enjoyed it. Since then we've had some great times together at the range. We can burn through a few hundred rounds in a session easy. So when I heard our legislators were having a public hearing where they were considering 24 bills to relieve us of our some of our freedom, I decided to take the day off work and make an appearance in support of personal liberty. What I witnessed was a real eye opener. My only real question is why did they waste our time and money putting on this 'public' hearing? It was clear right from the beginning they had no intention of actually listening to their constituents. I loved Vlad's comment about how at least the communists pretended to listen. Why did they waste all of that time and effort so that they could not even pretend to pay attention? I sat through the very end until the last 'vote' was cast. While my disillusionment with the political system in NJ is now at an all-time high - I was absolutely awe struck and inspired by the passion, enthusiasm and dedication I saw in that room - and recognized a good bit of the testimony from postings I've read lurking around here. So while I don't know why the State bothered to put on that charade - I do think they got a bit of a rude awakening. They thought this was going to be a cakewalk they could wrap up in a tiny room in less than 3 hours !! Boy were they mistaken. I want to say thanks to the members of this forum that I heard speak yesterday. While I didn't speak yesterday - I may have now become an 'activist' (at least that's how the New York Times referred to the concerned citizens, made it seem like we were all just paid lobbyists). While I hope I don't ever have to sit in a room like that again in defense of basic freedom: Common Sense tells me we're going to have a lot of work to make these clowns realize - Enough is Enough is Enough !! Mike