New Jersey Coalition for Self Defense

The people of New Jersey finally demonstrated this past Tuesday that there is indeed a line in the sand when they ousted “progressive” Democrat Jon Corzine from the Governor’s office in resounding fashion.

For the state’s self-defense advocates, Corzine’s departure will signal the end of a regime dedicated to destroying private gun ownership.

Chris Christie’s election may be an interruption in the onslaught, but as we all know, self-defense has become a foreign concept in New Jersey. Politicians - and the people - must be reacquainted with why removing New Jersey’s oppressive restrictions on a citizen’s ability to protect self, family and property will be a benefit to society in the long run.

Most of New Jersey’s firearms laws, such as the recent One-Gun-a-Month debacle, demonstrate a blatant, willful ignorance of a reality that the vast majority of state legislatures have eschewed in favor of respect for the people. Governor-elect Christie’s history shows that he has supported little if any change in the state’s laws. Whether this is for political expedience or a result of personal philosophy remains to be seen.

While for many of you this may seem like the time to take a deep breath and relax, the New Jersey Coalition for Self Defense will not rest. We have begun the process of reaching out to the new administration with the intent of opening a dialogue on the subject of self-defense and dispelling the misinformation that keeps New Jersey’s policies in the Dark Ages. We will work to give our members a better understanding of the political process so that in the coming elections we might have more influence on who is chosen for public offices. We are asking our members and supporters to remain at the ready to actively promote programs to educate the public and initiatives to move New Jersey’s gun laws in a positive direction.

Yes, for many reasons you are entitled to a long, slow exhale of relief after enduring the failures of the Corzine administration. But the fight for self-defense rights in New Jersey is far from over - it's certainly not on the Governor-elect's priority list. It’s up to all of us to put it there.  Let’s not wait until the next election to get started.

For those of you who were unable to attend the open meeting of the Firearms Task Force on September 24th, we hope this followup letter to the chairman will be of interest to you, and highlight our experience.  Read between the lines as you will.

10/24/09
Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office
Attn: Mr. Robert Bernardi
49 Rancocas Road, 2nd Floor
P.O. Box 6000
Mount Holly, NJ 08060-1384

Dear Mr. Bernardi,

The purpose of this letter is to address your exchange with our Legislative Affairs director, Mr. Bob Barush, during his testimony at the open meeting of Thursday September 24th regarding the ‘One Gun a Month’ law.

We regret that videotaping our testimony caused you obvious discomfort, which was not our intent.  The purpose for recording the transcript was to facilitate internal review so that we can become more proficient when submitting testimony going forward.  From our perspective, it seems that there are a great many “blind spots” the task force has with regard to the plight of New Jersey gun owners, which as you noted was presumably the reason Governor Corzine created the Task Force to begin with.

That said, I trust we can be forgiven for our presumption that where an open public meeting is concerned, the taxpayers of the state have a right to know and see for themselves what their elected representatives are doing, how lawmakers operate, how their issue is being treated, and how elected officials behave, as a matter of public record.  Your reaction to the videotaping has highlighted the clandestine nature of how ‘feel-good’ gun control legislation has been spirited through the legislature over the years, and stands as a testament to all that the citizens of New Jersey and lookers-on across the nation have come to expect of New Jersey politics, and politicians.

NCJSD testimony submitted to the Task Force created by Executive Order 145 arising from the One Gun A Month law.

Prosecutor Robert Bernardi (Chair)
Senator Fred Madden (Vice Chair)
Senator Sandra B. Cunningham
Assemblyman John Burzichelli
Assemblyman Gorden Johnson
Assistant Attorney General Ronald Susswein
LTC Chris Andreychak, NJ State Police
Robert Nixon, representative from ANJRPC
Bryan Miller, representative from Cease Fire NJ

Ladies and gentlemen of the Task Force, my name is Robert Barush, I am the Director of Legislative Affairs for the New Jersey Coalition for Self Defense. We are a volunteer, not-for-profit organization. Our objective is to save lives and make communities safer, by teaching, training and inspiring New Jersey Citizens to develop for themselves the means of proper self defense.

Our position is that our laws can be crafted to hold criminals accountable for their actions while protecting the rights of law-abiding citizens to have access to the tools necessary to defend themselves.

We are pleased to have the opportunity to be here today to discuss the much needed changes to the “one-handgun-a-month law” and other related legislative issues.

Let me first start by saying that there are many issues that the members of NJCSD have asked us to address today. Since we can’t possibly cover them all, and considering that this hearing is primarily about “one-handgun-a-month” (OGAM), we have compiled a separate list of issues which we ask the Taskforce to address as part of your review of New Jersey firearms laws and regulatory processes and to include us in the discussion of each, as we feel we have a lot to offer.

Today we will cover our specific concerns and suggestions regarding OGAM, and provide a general statement that we wish to make on behalf of our members. We see this as the first step of a process of communication and understanding of the elements of each issue and hope that our perspective might begin to put the ‘sense’ back into ‘common sense’ gun laws.

Representatives of the New Jersey Coalition for Self Defense will attend a public meeting of the New Jersey Firearms Task Force on Thursday, September 24 at 11:00 AM. The meeting will take place in Committee Room 4 at the State House Annex, 145 West State Street, Trenton.

Speaking on behalf of NJCSD will be Robert Barush, Director of Legislative Affairs. The list of spokespeople also includes NRA Board Member Scott Bach, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, Competitive Shooter Kathy Chatterton, and Attorneys Evan Nappen and Gary Needleman. 

For more information, including directions, please see our related forum topic.