Miguel from the excellent
GunFreeZone blog brings the goods again with his post
"New Jersey slaps some lipstick to their gun laws pig."
In that post, Miguel shares a memorandum from acting New Jersey Attorney General John J. Hoffman that
allowed County prosecutor Jim McClain to back away from his outrageous prosecution of Shaneen Allen, and may have saved Chris Christie's Presidential aspirations from an early death at the hands of the Garden State's draconian gun laws.
Allen is the Philadelphia nurse who broke New Jersey law by carrying her Pennsylvania-licensed handgun in her car's glovebox into the Garden State. As punishment, the Atlantic City prosecutor demanded that Ms. Allen spend a
minimum of three years in prison.
The handgun was never taken out of the glovebox while Allen was in New Jersey, except when confiscated by the New Jersey State Police after the ill-informed Allen volunteered to them at a traffic stop that she possessed the gun, in the mistaken belief that her Pennsylvania gun permit was valid in New Jersey.
Allen, who had no prior criminal history of any sort, was peremptorily denied access to New Jersey's pre-trial intervention (PTI) program, despite the fact that no one alleged she had any intent to use the gun unlawfully or to harm any person. (In contrast, Baltimore Ravens football player Ray Rice was quickly ushered into the state's PTI program after videotape emerged of him punching his wife unconscious in an elevator.)
Atlantic City prosecutor McClain drew widespread condemnation, and created a particularly awkward situation for New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie. Imprisoning a young mother who had no malicious intent was not going to help him win over America's 100 million gun owners.