On Monday, July 14, a message came in to the voicemail service of the New Jersey Coalition for Self Defense. It was a woman who identified herself as Carol Miller (listen here) from Governor Corzine’s appointment office. She was looking to get in touch with Bryan Miller (of Ceasefire NJ infamy) to discuss the Governor’s handgun task force (to be assembled in tandem with the one-gun-a-month statute), and she needed him to get back to her “ASAP”.
Seeing an opportunity, our Executive Director, Joe Ficalora, returned Ms. Miller’s call with the purpose of first correcting the communication error, and second to see if an organization concerned with preserving self-defense rights might find a place alongside the sportsmen and hunters in defining the success or failure of the new restrictions.
Given the surprise and indignance expressed by the Governor’s aide at Joe’s knowledge of the existence of the task force, it is clear that she was under the impression that the task force was a hush-hush undertaking with rabid hoplophobe Bryan Miller as an accomplice. And since we haven’t received the courtesy of a return call, it also demonstrates that Governor Corzine couldn’t care less about the human right of self-defense. Why? Because it makes the best argument against the continuing futility of laws like one-gun-a-month.
If a hunter or sportsman loses his gun rights, he can simply go to the supermarket for something to grill, or find another hobby. If the citizen who wants to be able to have an effective, immediate response to a violent threat loses his gun rights, the consequence can be devastatingly permanent.
The good people of the Garden State deserve better. New Jersey’s regressive policies regarding self-defense are an ongoing insult to humanity, and Governor Corzine’s farce of a committee is just another effete stunt at the expense of our well-being. Those of us who value the ability to protect ourselves and our families stand to suffer the most as a result of oppressive gun laws, and we should not be ignored.
