NEVER-ENDING WAIT PLAGUES NJ GUN PERMITS! HOW MANY MUST DIE BEFORE NICS IS FIXED NJ??
by Dan Grdovic for Black Wire Media
Monday Aug. 24, 2020 www.cnjfo.com/join-us
So, you waited your legislatively mandated maximum 30 days (in practice more like 70+ days, depending on your town) for your "permission slip" from the State to allow you to purchase your handgun, only to find out that the NICS "INSTANT" background check (the UNIVERSAL BACKGROUND CHECK that you constantly hear the overzealous media clamoring for as if it didn't exist), resembles Instant the way Instant Coffee resembles coffee, or the way Government resembles Help.
Those "increased resources" they speak about? Yeah, they have not increased resources in any measurable manner as the backlog still remains well above 1,000 checks, and has been holding at that level for close to three weeks. At CNJFO we saw this coming. In fact it's why we wrote to Gov. Murphy, NJSP Superintendent Callahan and every NJ Senator & Assemblyperson on July 1st imploring them to DO AWAY with the NJ Portal for the National Instant Check System (NICS)! We're still waiting for his not so "INSTANT" answer...
Delays such as these have resulted in deaths. Deaths at the hand of the state. Carol Bowne applied for her permits, and was killed on her property at day 43, stabbed to death by an ex-boyfriend whom she had a restraining order against. Her newly-installed CCTV captured it all. If she had lived in Pennsylvania, just a few minutes from her Berlin, NJ home, not only wouldn't have she WAITED that long, she'd have a CARRY PERMIT to at least try to defend herself against her murderer. We'll save that Unicorn story (carry permit in NJ) for another day...
We tend to roll our eyes at the following clichés: A restraining order is just a piece of paper, and a right delayed, remains a right denied. Yet here we have, in practice, the negative effects indicated therein. Another body, another soul, stacked like cordwood on the altar of GUN CONTROL.
What's a prospective gun owner to do? For those of you who are close to "the border" and are purchasing a long gun, we highly recommend going to PA as PICS is still running somewhere between 5 and 15 minutes - and yes, that's 100% legal, but only for long guns.
But wait, there's more going on here. The NJ NICS Portal was listing their backlog online, you see that in the screenshot photo, and then for whatever reason they pulled the backlog announcement DOWN temporarily. As of Friday Aug 21 at 8:00 AM, what does the NJ NICS Portal show? That's right folks, shortly after the Star Ledger reached out to CNJFO to interview us about these delays, MIRACULOUSLY, the NJ NICS Portal no longer lists anything about a backlog! Hmmmm?
Yesterday the number advisory splash page was reposted with "1,969" still waiting for approval processing, and the notice said they were still 4 days behind. Best analogy we can think of is trying to put out a house fire with a garden hose, and a KINKED one at that!
So, did they add 11 new people overnight to clear the backlog? HARDLY! The backlog still exists, they've just (temporarily) maneuvered themselves so that YOU don't have proof of THEIR incompetence. Maybe it grew to over 2,000 and someone decided no one needed to KNOW THAT? Not that you needed proof - just look at the absurd lines and policies at DMV! Think anything is going to change? HARDLY.
In the meantime, we wish you good luck, and pray that the home invaders don't knock between now and when YOUR "instant"? check is approved.
EDITOR's NOTE:
CNJFO President Dan Grdovic brings up the facts & figures that can't be "massaged" into a pretty picture. Is that why The Star Ledger's original story on firearms transfers that our Theresa Inacker spent considerable time being interviewed on never saw ink? Is THAT why it "morphed" ("Murph-ed" for my Peeps) into the "nobody can find ammo on the shelf due to exploding demand overtaking an already ramped-up production story"?? In fact Grdovic's portrait of incompetency leads this Editor to ask THE question I've been asking as a gun owner for decades:
With a broken-down system (NJ NICS Portal) as bad as it IS, and getting worse by the day, why do obvious gun collectors need to CLOG it? After 5, 10, 20 hand guns collected, the collector doesn't "need" the 21st to commit their crime spree, knock over a liquor store or rob a bank! So why in hell are we even bothering "KINKING the garden hose trying to put-out the house fire" with yet another needless, point-of-purchase "check" (with almost a business week backlog) at the gun counter (transfer point)?? All it does is MAKE THE FIRST TIME GUN BUYERS WAIT even MORE!
Isn't it about time that NJ figured out that they can TRUST HONEST Gun Owners? Isn't the paper hand gun permit signed by the local Chief of Police enough for gun collectors? Why does NJ treat every gun owner like a criminal on a prison Chain Gang "asking permission to go potty"?
---The Editor
