Just something else to consider...
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1188367183220300.xml&coll=1
Restraining order lifted, not gun ban
Years after domestic violence complaint, court rules man still cannot buy weapons
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
BY KATE COSCARELLI
Star-Ledger Staff
A person who has had guns seized by the police because of domestic violence cannot buy guns later -- even if the event was long ago and a restraining order has since been dropped, a state appeals court ruled yesterday.
The three-judge Appellate Division panel said a Millburn man and his wife, who had a nasty divorce that led to domestic violence charges and restraining orders against both of them, could not have a firearms purchaser identification card.
"The prohibition ... survives even if, as in the case here, a restraining order is vacated," Judge Ariel Rodriguez wrote.
Matthew Sweetwood, the Short Hills man at the center of the case, called the decision "completely unreasonable." The 44-year-old father of six owns a photographic supply shop in Florham Park. He collected the guns over several years, enjoyed target shooting as a hobby, and is a dues-paying member of the National Rifle Association.
"It's not about the guns," Sweetwood said. "A constitutional right has been taken from me and there was no real due process. I'm like a regular, normal guy. I have never done anything wrong. I don't have a point on my license ... and I've lost my right to bear arms. There is something not quite right about that."
Sweetwood said he is considering an appeal to the state Supreme Court.
Advocates for domestic violence victims said the ruling was important for battered women.
"The decision is an accurate reading of the law," said Sandy Clark, associate director of the New Jersey Coalition for Battered Women. "Firearm prohibitions, generally, are important protections for victims of domestic violence. It is our thinking that the less they are around, the safer victims are."
Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, also said he was pleased with the decision.
The case goes back to January 1995 when Sweetwood got a firearms purchaser identification card. The following year, he and his wife became entangled in a contentious divorce. After a confrontation in front of their children, each signed a domestic violence complaint against the other. In January 1997, a judge issued a final restraining order against both of them, court papers show.
Because of the domestic violence complaint and restraining order, Sweetwood had to forfeit his five handguns, other paraphernalia and his firearms card to Millburn police. He was allowed to sell the guns to a registered gun dealer that year.
When the divorce was finalized in 2001, both Sweetwood and his former wife agreed to drop the restraining orders, he said.
In the spring of 2005, he sought to retrieve the card, something his former wife told the court she did not oppose. Last June, a civil court judge said he deserved the card back, but the Essex County Prosecutor's Office appealed.
The appellate judges said state law says such a card should not be issued to a person who had firearms seized, and not returned, related to a domestic violence incident. Even though the law was not in effect when the guns were taken, it was in effect when he asked for the card back, wrote Rodriguez, who was joined by Judges Edwin Stern and Jack Sabatino.
The decision said Millburn police may continue to hold the card "or destroy it."