N.J. Gun Control Musings

50 caliber Barrett Rifle

What Makes America Special: Its Government? Or Its Limitation on Government?

By Synnove Bakke | The Save Jersey Blog

50 caliber Barrett Rifle
.50 caliber Barrett Rifle

Are we on our way to creating a permanent nanny state with extreme Government overreach? I’m concerned that we may be in the Garden State.

At the end of last week, Governor Christie enacted recommendations of his Violence Task Force that was formed with the express purpose of examining the state of gun laws in New Jersey.

As reported first at Save Jersey, the plan calls for expanding New Jersey’s already second-in-the-nation super strict gun control laws. It also recommends expanding government-funded mental health treatment, offers several guidelines on mental health reporting/monitoring, and endorses restricting kids from buying or renting violent video games without a parent. The plan also proposes government-issued photo IDs with mandatory renewal dates accompanied by penalties if a gun owner fails to comply as well as new penalties for gun-related crimes etc and so on – the report is many pages long!

This lengthy plan also left me with more questions than answers, Save Jerseyans.

The plan made me cringe, and feel like I’m officially back living in a socialist country. I was born here in New Jersey, but lived in Norway for 20 years. I fell in love with this country and all its freedoms. I fell hard for the idea of personal responsibility, the pursuit of happiness and American people’s philosophy in general. I love the fact that most parents tell their children “You can do anything you put your mind to” and both parent and child firmly believes this, because in America, if you believe it, you can do it.

Most countries don’t have this inherent confidence. I love this country with a great passion, but the last ten years have me worried for my children’s future. More and more, I question the country’s ability to remain great, both fiscally and ideologically. The ideologists and the nanny-state pushers are taking over in many US states.

As I’m reading this new report, one element immediately gave me pause…

For starters, as a Mom of 4 kids ranging from age 7 to 18, I am puzzled by the proposed “Video Game” recommendation. I personally know that NJ video shops already deny young kids to buy video games that are rated Mature, and even the Rated PG13 ones. My boys have all at one time or another tried without success to buy games they shouldn’t buy, and then when denied, pleaded with me to come with them and buy the desired game (I didn’t fall for it). But now, I’m wondering what is the relevance here? Are they suggesting that video games should automatically be taken into consideration when passing new gun laws? Are they insinuating there’s a direct correlation between mass shootings and video games? If that’s the case, why not show us proof in the form of valid research rather than simply insinuate the presence of a correlation?

I saw statements from Governor Christie on video games a few months or so ago on the topic, and I’m almost willing to bet money on the fact that he told the Task Force to include this part in their plan.

The following statement is from the Task Force Report:

Our analysis of gun control issues starts with a recognition that we are by no means writing on a clean slate. New Jersey already has in place an extensive set of gun laws and regulations. Indeed, New Jersey’s system for regulating firearms is widely considered to be among the most comprehensive and stringent in the nation. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Violence, for example, recently ranked New Jersey’s gun laws as the second strongest in the country. The Law Center to Prevent Violence recently gave New Jersey an “A minus,” which tied for the highest grade awarded by that organization.”

Now that’s very interesting. Why would they go any further after a statement like that? The statement acknowledging how strict our gun laws already are tells me they already know this is a massive government overreach. I wish someone would have told them to put the pen down, step away from the desk, and walk away at that point.

Here’s another statement that gave me pause: “But the task force takes no position on many of the hot-button gun control issues that have dominated the national debate following the tragedy in Sandy Hook Elementary”

Isn’t the shooting in Newtown, CT why the Task Force was formed in the first place? Why pretend that this isn’t about current events when it clearly is part of an emotional reaction?

There’s a lot about mental illness in this report, and this has me equally concerned. Who will decide if someone with mental illness such as depression, ADD or other common illnesses will be eligible to own a gun? Who will deem someone unfit to own a weapon and use it for hunting? Will it be some psychiatrist appointed by the courts or some bureaucratic Task Force? (Cringe!)

On the State Senate side, leaders who are worried about reelection this year, and rightfully so, since a few vulnerable Democrat districts including LD1, LD2, and LD3 are largely rural and contain a large number of pro-Second Amendment constituents. That’s why the 21 bills hurried through the NJ Assembly 2 months ago are now down to only 12 expected to be introduced in Senate Monday. I strongly opined on this when the bills came up befoe the Assembly in February, and I ranted against it once it passed NJ Assembly.

Facts are also endangered in this debate. I did some research and found that terrifying as they are, mass shootings are not on the rise in America. Passing laws based on emotions and ideology will only create more government overreach and further problems in the future. My research also confirmed that on Mmass shootings, criminologist James Allen Fox of Northeastern University, who studies the issue says, “There is no pattern, there is no increase” I found that our schools are safer too. According to the National Center of Education statistics, the victimization rate per 1,000 students dropped from 53 to 14 over the past 20 years.

Interestingly, the National Instant Criminal Background Check system shows that while New Jersey averaged anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 gun permit applications on a monthly basis for several years, that number increased to 10,000 and 11,000 for December 2012 and January 2013, and has been significantly above average since the Newtown shooting and the National and local Democrats knee jerk reactions to new gun law proposals.

The Obama Administration, the anti-gun advocates, and many media outlets on the Left have been using the Sandy Hook massacre to push the change in gun laws and bring up every restriction possible, but they fail to realize that this will not prevent another criminal and mentally ill individual from doing it again. These new laws won’t heal the pain and the loss we all felt after Sandy Hook. Nothing short of the impossible task of banning all firearms and collecting illegally owned and all guns in private ownership nationwide could have prevented this massacre.

I happen to be one of those many citizens applying for a gun permit. I started the process of becoming a Gun owner in February of this year, and finalized the process with finger prints last week. It felt strange, and somewhat like I had been naughty to have to get my finger prints done, and also to have a criminal back ground check for the first time in my life at 41 years of age. I now feel more justified to question the validity of any new laws, especially being that I am going through the process, and I’m seeing first hand that it’s not as easy as the gun control pushers would like you to think.

Frank Fiamingo, president of the New Jersey 2nd Amendment Society, said gun control advocates have taken advantage of the deaths of innocent children to manipulate public opinion, observing “There are problems of poverty, drugs, gangs that nobody’s doing anything to address.”

I agree with Fiamingo. I have an 18 year old that’s been through the public school system in a town where the schools are supposed to be top of the line Blue Ribbon schools. I know from him that there are drugs being offered to the kids on a daily basis at the Junior High School and the High School as well. I have personally seen many of those kids ending up in rehab, or even worse, dead from an overdose and it’s a huge problem that’s being swept under the rug. Being that I grew up in a small town where drugs were not the norm, this has worried me as a parent for many years. It’s worried me ten times more than the fact that law abiding citizens own guns for hunting and home protection in New Jersey. Where’s the legislature on this big “drugged out teen elephant” in the room?

Sadly, I think I know where they are; they are too busy pandering to the majority of voters and fretting over reelection instead of focusing on doing the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing. I personally believe doing the right thing without an agenda and without being self-serving will get elected officials so much more in the long run.

I was hoping the Governor would speak up and say “New Jersey has the 2nd most strict gun laws in the nation, and after reviewing the Task Force report, I do not think we need to make any new changes.” I was hoping he would veto these new laws after Senate votes on them, because they only serve to infringe on the good guys while the criminals will still have access on the black market, but I’m not sure he will. (I’m pretty sure the Boston parents cowering in their homes, while the crazy terrorist was at large in their neighborhoods this week, wished they had a gun with which to protect their families).

I was hoping Christie would stick to Ronald Reagan’s philosophy of limited government but he didn’t on this particular issue. .

It makes me sad as a Republican to say that the Governor has disappointed me. Especially since I pushed hard to help him get elected in ’09, and have been a strong supporter of him ever since.

That’s not to say that I won’t support and help him get re-elected. I am after all a diehard Republican and it will be a cold day in hell before I would even consider voting for the socialist Democrats. Sadly, we all know, the JFK-relatable Democrat is long gone, and he’s been replaced with a far left socialist group of Democrats. If that’s part of the legacy they want their children to remember, they should seriously reconsider.

I believe that no one else could win as a Republican in this blue/purplish state, and I believe the Governor has done so much good to right the fiscal wrongs of the former administration of Jon Corzine. No one else has ever dared go after the unions the way Christie has. The NJEA spent millions to try and prevent him from getting elected, and the Governor has never wavered in putting them on the spot.

Keep in mind, both legislatures in Trenton have Democrat majority, so it’s been an uphill battle for Christie from day one. He has continually stayed Jersey Strong and for that I give him major kudos. New Jersey is a blue/purplish State, and it’s mind boggling to think that Governor Christie is at or near a 70% job approval rating. This fact alone means he’s doing something right.

Finally, in case you missed it, let me show you a video from Boston; it’s something to ponder, because it shows how united Americans become (as we did after 9/11) the instant there’s an attack on our nation. It shows true patriotism that you very rarely find in other countries, and it reminds us what makes America great… its people, not its government! So let’s keep the reasons why America has been so great, and let’s fight the ideologues that think we can be better and different by permanently changing the way we govern and allow ourselves to be governed, and how the Government acts towards its people.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3EOk1ugYr0

Synnove Bakke
About Synnove Bakke 27 Articles
A 2015 candidate for the N.J. Assembly, Synnove Bakke was born in New Jersey to immigrant parents but moved back to Norway as an infant where she lived throughout her childhood and young adult years. She returned to the U.S. after graduating from nursing school to work as an au pair for one year. She quickly fell in love with this great country and never relocated back to her native Norway.

4 Comments

  1. They are taking away what is left of our 2nd Amendment rights. And total silence from the incumbent Republicans. Not to speak is to speak and their silence speaks VOLUMES!

  2. Glad to see this from Syn. About a year ago, she cut me off as a FB friend because I was against Mitt getting the nomination. We're still friendsnd once again FB friends, but this letter tells me that a LOT of people are realizing that they are more conservative than the GOP thinks we are!

  3. Synnove: Please ask your friends in the Republican Party, what they think about the Governor's violations of what's left of our 2nd Amendment rights. Why haven't they come out against more gun control? What are they afraid of? Better yet, WHO are they afraid of? I think we all know the answer to that question. You have the ear of the incumbents in this state. What do the Republican sheriffs think about these new reforms? Thank you for having the guts to speak common sense, regardless of what side of the aisle you hail from.

Comments are closed.