"But I'm a super-citizen!" - NJ cop arrested for AW possession

[Telperion]

Evidently, the sword cuts both ways.


Officer's arrest spotlights assault weapon law: legal opinions split on whether police are exempt from ban
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-3/105341122543220.xml

 

[cool45auto]

Ah, irony. You gotta love it.

 

[Destructo6]

Busted for a M1 Carbine, and that on a BS political manipulation? Sounds to me that the current chief of police for that city should be the one facing jail time.

 

[Standing Wolf]

"The police exemption was included because of the weapons they would use as part of their responsibilities," Florio said in a recent interview. "The reason why there is an exemption for police officers is because they are special individuals performing a special function."

Extra super-duper really and truly special, in fact.

 

[ctrmass]

I know a cop that's in Sussex cty, he told me tha cty prosecutor came to his dept to tell everyone that the police arent exempt.

 

[444]

Among those personal weapons was a World War II-era M-1 carbine assault rifle,



These are some sick people.

I think you guys are barking up the wrong tree. Yeah, the guy is using a defense that he had special immunity from the law. But let's face it. If your guns were banned and you had some exemption, you would use it. And if anyone called you on it, you would play that card. I know I would.

 

[Pilgrim]

Somerset County Assistant Prosecutor Matthew Murphy has argued in court documents that the law enforcement exemption in state's assault weapons ban does not apply to the M-1 carbine owned by Moose, which was given to him as a gift in 1990 and never registered.

"There can be no rational basis for treating citizen-police officers differently from all other New Jersey residents and permit the secret acquisition and private possession of unregistered assault firearms that have no connection to law enforcement," Murphy wrote in his brief.

Do you suppose the prosecutor's office and the police will no longer be "friends" after this?

 

[Redlg155]

Bummer of a deal. Still..Police or no police, no one should be exempt from the law when it comes to a personal weapons collection. A citizen is a citizen first no matter what job they do for a living. PBA should have never supported the passing of the bill in the first place.

Now the question...Is PBA sending a lawyer to represent him in this case?

Good Shooting
Red

 

[Telperion]

I think you guys are barking up the wrong tree. Yeah, the guy is using a defense that he had special immunity from the law. But let's face it. If your guns were banned and you had some exemption, you would use it. And if anyone called you on it, you would play that card. I know I would.

Of course I would. I have no problem with individual officers exploiting the option available to them to get guns they need or just plain want. But when police chiefs and groups like PBA and FOP go on record to say the governed should live under different laws than the governers, it churns my stomach. This is the source of tension between lawful gun owners and police officers.

 

[PATH]

The law applies to everyone! No exceptions! Now how will all those officers feel towards the Jersey ban?

 

[chaim]

Hey, I know that police are citizens and should be treated as such. Special excemptions rub many of us the wrong way.

However, this doesn't seem like the real problem here to me. An M1 Carbine is an illegal assult weapon!? My goodness, what's next, arrest someone with a Marlin 60 for possessing an illegal assult weapon? Oh wait, they already did that (unfortunately I don't have the link off hand, but as I recall there was a thread on TFL about 1 1/2-2 years ago).

This stuff is why I'll never live in NJ!

 

[Don Gwinn]

I can understand why people are glad the police don't get a free ride, but I can't bring myself to be happy about this.

 

[foghornl]

See how the 'governors' whine when they have to live under the laws they made. [Frankly, though if I were in that spot, I would whine for the special exemption, too.] Although when the FOP and such organizations saying that they are, in essence, above the law regarding weapons that they can have that we (the average Jon & Jan Q. Public-Citizen) cannot own, well, that just galls my gizzard.

An M-1 Carbine is an "assault wepon" ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

And will the "line officers" still support all the Peoples Socialist Republik of New Joisy weapons bans? ? ?

 

[dinosaur]

It`s too bad he was arrested and may lose his job. If it serves as a wake up call to other NJ LEOs then I guess there`s a good side.

The "smart gun" exemption should be fought and repealed. That would definetely get their attention.

 

[TheEgg]

"The reason why there is an exemption for police officers is because they are special individuals performing a special function."

[Dana Carvey voice on]
Well, isn't that special!
[Dana Carvey voice off]

 

[Ian]

I almost agree with Redlg155...but I would say:

Bummer of a deal. Still..Police or no police, EVERYONE should be exempt from the law when it comes to a personal weapons collection.

 

[Monte Harrison]

If your guns were banned and you had some exemption, you would use it.

But this guy WASN'T exempt, and probably knew that.
I can't get too happy about this either, but it is a perfect example to the police culture that they really need to get on our side, if they aren't already. The LIEberals have every intention of disarming the police as well.

 

[rock jock]

I can't bring myself to be happy about this.

I can. Police officers in general are either part of a police force or a police state. In New Jersey, it is the latter. These guys need to wake up to the reality of the situation that they helped to create. I have no sympathy for them. Did they have any for the millions of law-abiding citizens this law would turn into criminals by exercising their Constitutional rights?

 

[Mikul]

An M-1 Carbine is an "assault wepon"

That's actually not the most absurd thing: the most absurd thing is that the way the law is written, an M1-carbine MAGAZINE is an assault weapon.

I think this is to make the news reports more dramatic. "A Middleton man was pulled over with 21 assault weapons in his vehicle." It all sounds ominous until you realize that "assault weapon" = normal capacity magazine.

 

[Nightfall]

I'm sorry this guy was arrested on the level of a citizen exercising his 2nd Amendment right to ... jeez, just an M1?! *sigh*...

I'm POed at the 'I'm a super-citizen' defense.

I'm astonished at the ability of anybody to call one semi-automatic more assaulty (new word!) than another. Really takes a talent at burying ones head in the sand to be able to call an M1 a ultra-super-duper deadly assault rifle and let people walk around with a .308 snip-uh, er, 'hunting' rifle...

 

[Destructo6]

How many actually read the entire article?

Moose had applied for the chief's job, but another officer who had less than three years experience in Far Hills was appointed to head the department. That officer, questioning Moose's fitness for duty, ordered his suspension in August pending a psychological examination, which required Moose to turn over all weapons. Moose was cleared for duty a week later, but by then the carbine had already been confiscated.

This guy got a deal of the rawest kind and he's grasping at straws to get out of it. The use of exemption is just a straw. We should be sending sympathy his way, not laughter.

 

[JJohnston015]

No sympathy from me. The psych evaluation may have been a raw deal, but an illegal weapon's an illegal weapon.

As he would probably say to me (and has been said to me by others), "If you don't like the law, work to change it, but in the meantime, obey it. If you don't like that, go to Somalia and live in anarchy."

 

[Frohickey]

No sympathy from me neither. Police officers and former police officers, c'mon over to the pro-2nd Amendment side. You have just been given the double-cross by your recent allies in the war against crime. Little did you know that you were allying with nascent tyrants.

Anyone remember the time when you can count on police to be against any and every single gun control legislation that prohibits guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens? Its only recently that that has changed. Maybe this will change it back.

The Silviera vs Lockyer case is the same as this. Some of the plaintiffs thought that they were exempt because they were police/military, but that part of the law is struck down. Equal protection, I think.

Paging Jim March... paging Jim March.

 

[Nathaniel Firethorn]

Well, the judge has ruled:

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/somerset/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1053498459296240.xml

New Jersey's assault firearms ban provides a broad exemption for municipal police officers to possess such weapons, a Superior Court judge ruled yesterday in dismissing an indictment charging a former Far Hills police sergeant with violating the 1990 law.

Judge Edward Coleman, sitting in Somerville, said former Sgt. Kenneth Moose did not violate state law by keeping an M-1 Carbine assault rifle at his Peapack home, though the weapon did not relate to Moose's police duties.

"In reading the statute, it is clear that a law enforcement officer is permitted to possess assault firearms," Coleman said. "He's exempt. I grant the application to dismiss the indictment."

Divine right of police in PRNJ. Bleah.

- pdmoderator

 

[rock jock]

Sickening. Absolutely sickening.

This confirms my earlier post. This cop is part of a police state, not a police force.