You may have heard of the Personal Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act, a controversial piece of legislation that would force states to recognize a concealed carry gun permit issued by any other state, even if the person carrying the permit has not met both states’ minimum requirements to obtain it.
On Wednesday, the bill passed in the House 272-154. Forty-three Democrats joined 229 Republicans in passing the bill. Bill Pascrell was not one of them. As the former mayor of Paterson, Rep. Pascrell took to the floor to speak out against the act, citing his experience in that city, where he is a lifelong resident.
“I have witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of handguns in our communities and the struggles of law enforcement to combat this problem,” he said. “Today, the numbers remain chilling. Despite our best efforts, nearly 100,000 people are killed by guns every year—over 260 people per day.”
He pointed out that other opponents of the measure include International Association Chiefs of Police and the Major Cities Chiefs Association.
Opponents of concealed carry reciprocity are hopeful that Democratic-controlled Senate will vote down the measure.
Screenshot of Pascrell taken from a C-Span clip of his floor speech.
Well-said Pascrell. Kudos!
Where are all the people who agitate for states’ rights now? Shouldn’t states have the right to say “Thanks, but no thanks. We’d rather not have those here.” We’re talking about concealed handguns here, not hunting rifles.
If this goes thru NJ will be a blood bath. You think gangs coming to Montclair from Orange are a problem ? Wait until it’s a gang from one of the southern gun happy states rolling thru and out of state gang home invasions become the new normal.
I fully support the 2nd amendment but Kristen is right – what about states rights?
All I’ll say about this is that when you travel around this country, it’s interesting to see different states’ takes on gun laws and right to own, concealed versus not concealed, etc.
Well, states rights only matter when it’s convenient. When it comes to abortion or gun laws or gay marriage or english as the official language or any number of issues, those states rights folks sing a different tune.
I’m sure Gabriel GIffords has a point of view.
New Jersey will be a “blood bath?” Really, this is a silly, utterly unwarranted remark by someone who has no idea whatsoever she’s posting about. And to raise the specter of gangs from the South rolling through here with the intention of home invasions was simply wildly irresponsible.
There is little real research on the effect upon crime of laws which allow concealed weapons, although there is one study by an academic (from the U of Chicago as best I recollect) which notes that states with such allowances actually see a reduction in crime. The study’s author was famously surprised himself by the results of his research.
Anyone who’s ever seen our esteemed Congressman in action, however, knows already that he doesn’t commonly ever come off as terribly bright. (And that he was an undistinguished mayor in a rotting city before Congress hints that he’s already been promoted high enough for his dumb but unstinting party loyalty.)
The tragedy of Ms. Giffords being shot and so many others slaughtered (did you forget about their now-=stilled voices?), jerseygurl, was the result of one warped individual. Not a general failure of Arizona’s gun laws, I might suggest. But if you wish to truly express concern about firearms getting into the wrong hands (and I’m sure you do), jg, then you might complain, in this very space!, about the refusal of AG Holder to resign or anyway to thoroughly explain that failed operation which resulted in the Southwest in so many high-powered weapons getting into the hands of drug dealers and gang bangers. (Which were surely never intended by their felonious acquirers to be used in mere home invasions.) I have yet, however, to hear Pascrell himself calling for an investigation of that one, perhaps because Holder is a dear appointee of Obama’s.
There is little real research on the effect upon crime of laws which allow concealed weapons, although there is one study by an academic (from the U of Chicago as best I recollect) which notes that states with such allowances actually see a reduction in crime. The study’s author was famously surprised himself by the results of his research.
I could not care less. The people of New Jersey (and several other states not in the thrall of the NRA) have decided that they don’t want people carrying concealed guns.
End of story.
As previous posters have pointed out, it sure is funny how the right wing supports states rights until it sees a federal power that they really really want.
Odd, but I do not recall hearing any such disapproval of gun-walking operations when they were carried out in the previous administration. Surely cathar and his fellow-travelers remember “Operation Wide Receiver?”
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-guns-that-got-away-11172011.html
AS for the University of Chicago study (wasn’t that the place where Obama and Ayers preached socialist revolution?), there is a study for everyone, and everyone for a study.
http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x1526463189/Concealed-carry-laws-Experts-debate-impact
Hopefully, this will be defeated in the Senate.
… Because the one thing we know: bad guys follow gun laws.
We’ve seen this right here in Montclair. Those stiff NJ gun laws don’t seem to deter those with wicked thoughts.
That said, this is a dumb law. If our State won’t recognize a marriage certificate (in full), a gun permit however— no problem.
Like a driver’s licenses, you should have to conform to the new State’s laws when you move.
I was shocked by the 100,000 people killed per year, so I looked it up. It is ~100K people SHOT per year, ~35,000 died. Of those, more than half are suicides, and some are accidents. So, the actual number of successful gun murders in the US per year is somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000. That is less than half of the people killed in car accidents each year.
So foobar, what you’re saying is there are 10-15,000 people out there thinking, “I got shot, but didn’t die, so everything’s okeydokey!”?
Take another minute and look up gun deaths in Japan, or Britain, then ask youself who’s laws make more sense.
Firstly Prascal is a lying dog. He ran on a balanced budget amendment but whithin weeks of being elected he voted against it because it wasn’t his but Bush’s.
I have no respect for anything he says. If he opposes this law then I’m for it.
CroDB: During the Bush years no LEO was killed! And no one was then complaining how the cartels were getting most of their guns from us. Now the Omaniacs have the nerve to continue the fiction despite Holder’s brazen lies and obfuscations.
Britain? Japan? How about the Norway guy slaughter of scores of kids? I daresay that had anyone been armed the numbers would be a lot lower. Or the folks at Virginia Tech? Euro snobbery sucks.
As always,algb, you are an AH.
When I hold you in my arms.
And I feel my finger on your trigger,
I know nobody can do me no harm……
Remember kids, no LEO was killed (well, at least no AMERICAN LEO, because there were hundreds of Mexican LEOS who were) by those Operation Wide Receiver guns, therefore it was a good idea! After all, “no one was complaining” (which, I think,was my point).
Time to check back in to the farm, whatsup.
I’m sure all the out of state criminals in New Jersey are waiting with bated breath for this law to pass so they can legally conceal their handguns.
Good to hear from ROC, who is on record supporting the right of college students to carry weapons on campus.
With nuts like this, the case makes itself.
And since criminals don’t obey laws, it is only right that we abolish ALL laws. After all, they don’t follow them anyway.
Problem solved.
Predictably, the trolls and DB’s are back thinking it’s a great idea for people to carry concealed weapons. Because we all know, guns don’t kill people. People kill people. Freakin’ idiots.
algb,
Norway averages 10 gun deaths per year vs. the 12,000 in the US, so it’s not so much euro snobbery on display as it is your grotesque obfuscation of reality.
And of course you know as well that there is absolutely no evidence on the face of this earth that an armed populace leads to lower crime or less shootings—the statistics from the most heavily armed country on earth support this.
You also cynically cite the Norway massacre without mentioning it was a right wing maniac who murdered those folks.
Yeah! What about Norway, huh? It’s a slaughterhose there!
And For Christ’s ake Portugal is out of control. So is Denmark.
I’d mention Ireland, but wahtsup/algb likes to bring up the Reformation.
Sure , most of those guys are dead now (my uncle Jemmy is hanging on, but at 500+ years he’s slowing down), but we want guns and if we get ‘em, the streets will run red!
It’ll be like New Orleans!
I love it when cro gets all agitated like.
‘roo, do you ever change that shirt?
I have a whole closet full of them, ‘gurl. I wear each one once, and then I throw it in the incinerator.
Do you ever take your hand off your hip?
I will always remember a news story of a woman being violently assaulted in a mall parking lot in Houston. A passerby shot the assailant dead, and was considered a hero. Likewise the elderly couple whose door was kicked in by robbers. I would have liked to have seen the expressions of surprise on the faces of the, would be, robbers just before they were shot dead by the homeowner.
Makes a great story, deadeye. So do John Wayne movies. Did you hear the one about the kid who found the gun under daddy’s bed, thought it was a toy and shot mommy by mistake? Or the one about the guy who woke up in the middle of the night and shot the what he thought was a burglar but turned out to be his teenage son sneaking home after drinking with his friends? Great stories all.
With gun ownership comes responsibility.
Oh, yes, sorry, why should the Nanny State keep people from having all the guns they want just because they freakin’ kill people left and right? How silly of me. We should just give them a lecture on responsibility.
Sort of like the lecture we give the Masters of the Universe when they flush the economy down the toilet but keep billions in the Grand Cayman Islands for themselves, eh deadeye? Oh, if only they would be more responsible.
Emotionally I’m with walleroo, gurl, cro .. But do any of you really believe that a law will keep the guns away from the bad guys?
DatT, RoC and I said the same thing above– bad guys don’t really care about laws, so this “argument” here by (for the most part, I assume) law-abiding citizens is well, theater.
As for other Countries, not sure any of them have our history of guns, or feature guns enshrined in their founding documents. So any comparison is faulty at best.
But I look forward to our bi-annual “GUN” conversation here on B-net, where everyone gets to state his or her position LOUDLY again.
I think the abortion conversation is slated for mid-January.
If there is any person on this site who likes to state his position LOUDLY (as in ALL CAPS) over and over and OVER again, it is you, my good prof. Talk about theater.
Criminals do not purchase guns legally, nor do they have CCW permits. If you are properly trained and pass the per-requisite background checks there is no reason you shouldn’t be able to carry concealed.
But what if a law-abiding citizen is walking down the street and a gets bitten by a wild-eyed criminal?
The law-abiding citizen fends off said criminal with his cane. Then the criminal almost gets away but is gunned down by the law-abiding town-folk (all carrying unforged, bona fide, concealed weapons permits).
Yes, the law-abiding citizen has survived the criminal’s attack, but that’s not the end of the event.
Later, the law-abiding American citizen who is visiting his deceased father’s estate, begins to feel, off, different.
He tries to sleep but it is a fruitless night of fitful tossing and turning filled with frightfully unlawful visions of ordering sushi and not paying for it.
And sure enough, later that night at Target’s Thanksgiving Midnight Sushi Blow-out, he does just that.
He escapes the pursuing minimum-wagers, but there will be more fiendish acts to come from this law-abiding citizen (the month’s just bloated with full moons!).
And yet he has just acquired a liscence to carry a concealed weapon.
Can this law-abiding citizen be saved…from the criminal within?!?
I am a registered Democrat but I’m pro concealed carry. I really doubt that the gun violence in Paterson or any other city in New Jersey is being perpetrated by people who are licensed to carry firearms. The laws related to guns that we should really be worried about are the ones that will help to keep illegal/unregistered guns out of the hands of criminals. Someone earlier mentioned gangs from the South coming North because of this. Do you honestly think that criminal gangs in the South have concealed weapons permits?