No jail for Shaneen Allen
AW1Ed sends us a link to good news for Shaneen Allen who was arrested last year for possessing a loaded firearm in New Jersey even though she was licensed in Pennsylvania to carry the gun. When she was pulled over by a New Jersey trooper, she admitted that she was in possession of the gun. Ms. Allen, a single mom, was facing ten years in prison. The state’s Attorney General intervened;
Atlantic County Prosecutor Jim McClain originally denied Allen pretrial intervention because he said a 2008 directive that expanded the state’s Graves Act did not allow for an exception.
But the attorney general released a clarification to the state’s county prosecutors Wednesday with respect to out-of-state visitors from states where their gun possession would be legal.
“In most of these cases, imprisonment is neither necessary nor appropriate to serve the interests of justice and protect public safety,” acting Attorney General John Hoffman wrote.
“In applying the factors set out in the clarification, I determined that the defendant in this case should be offered the opportunity to be admitted into the Atlantic County PTI Program,” McClain said. “I have communicated that determination to the court and defense counsel.”
So, she won’t be facing jail time, I guess. My CCW permit has printed right on it that I’m responsible for knowing the laws of any State that I might pass through and Ms. Allen serves as an object lesson to gun owners. New Jersey is not gun friendly at all, so leave them at home, even though you’re your more likely to need a gun there than anywhere else.
Ms. Allen is also an object lesson for legislators in Congress to get on the stick and pass a Federal law to allow licensed law-abiding citizens to carry wherever they go. If I’m not committing a crime with my gun in my home state, I’m not likely to commit a gun crime ten miles away in Maryland.
Category: Guns
Or at the very least, if traveling through a state that does not have reciprocity with yours, unload your weapon and store gun and ammo separately, at least arm’s length apart and away from any passenger area.
My cousin was a NJ game warden and worked along the river that separates NJ and PA. The game wardens would understand that things happen and would send the PA residents who managed to make it into NJ with a weapon on their way back to PA unscathed. The troopers would go out of their way to look for the guys who accidently ended up in NJ with a weapon and make their lives a living hell.
I’m glad to see that someone was partially reasonable about this.
I watched a NJ trooper give grief to a Philly Sheriff’s deputy in uniform as he got off the train in Trenton going home for the evening. I had thought LEOSA took care of that type stuff but I guess not.
I like the decision but……
I have a feeling there is some lucky baby daddy in North Philly who was in Atlantic City that early morning with someone else. But what do I know, maybe armed single mothers from Philly are the norm on the AC Expressway in the wee hours.
Being a retired LEO I have done some research on LEOSA. It covers you if you carry a weapon and hollow point bullets but stops at high capacity magazines. Figure that one out. The NJ trooper was probably giving him a hard way to go since he was on a train. Trains, planes, cruise ships are usually no go areas even if you are an active LEO.
Good for her! Any chance of them returning her seized property?
Well she has some good news on this issue….
Meanwhile nothing much changes in those parts of Jersey where crime runs rampant. Disarming everyone won’t stop the drug criminals from violence over drug turf.
The legal community can pretend otherwise, but it will never be true. Removing the profit motive from the criminal activity removes the criminal activity.
We can pretend otherwise but 90 years of history make it clear that prohibition fails to address why a society craves a means to get high or drunk.
I would bet that this precludes her from ever getting another permit or being able to even own a gun as she is probably a felon now…
This poor woman, my heart goes out to her but the entire NE corridor sucks and is the true home of liberal horse shit policies that do more harm than good.
I will never go there again except for going to DC to see the monuments or on a Thunder Run and Ground Zero in NY.
They have been voting for lib’s for decades, and I would bet that she is an avowed demonrat…
You get what you sew…
Vermont is the exception. Their carry laws are similar to Arizona. Burlington being the exception, of course.
New Hampshire and Maine, while not as good as Vermont, are reasonable. Please don’t lump the northern half of New England in with the Totalitarian southern half.
Burlington VT cannot make local exceptions. VT state law makes this clear. You can carry there. While Burlington has gone down hill and no longer vibrant with different activities. They failed to follow VT state law and therefore any city ordinance is null and void
http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/criminal/crpti.htm
“What Are The Benefits of the Pretrial Intervention Program (PTI)?
If PTI is successfully completed, there is no record of conviction and the defendant avoids the stigma of a criminal record.”
Notice all the race hustlers like Holder, Sharpton, and even Hussein were all silent regarding this one.
Federal Courts (a pox on the nation) force states to recognize gay marriage from other states, but will not force states to recognize carry concealed from other states.
Stupid, little bitty states.
I’m guessing that Mr. Hoffman foot-stomped this before NJ’s laws could get challenged in the courts. Because that was certainly coming.
I am so glad that I live in Alaska. I don’t need a CCW to carry concealed or open. All I need to be in order to carry is being legally able to purchase a firearm.
My grammar sucked in that last post. “as to”.
“New Jersey is not gun friendly at all… even though you’re your more likely to need a gun there than anywhere else.”
Funny how that works.
Funny that in the DFW Metroplex .If stopped by a Leo and are a good cilvie you be warned or scolded for not being cocked and locked, CCW or not. Joe
The MWR range does nothing to help support us military stationed in NJ when we want to go shooting. We’ve tried to multiple times to explain we are not state residents and the range states that the only weapons not authorized to shoot are higher caliber rifles.
I started to go into PA to go shooting now. I always have all my firearms triple locked and away from my ammo in the trunk just like NJ wants me to.
I would prefer Congress keep themselves out of it (along with the piles and piles of regulation, loop holes and bs) and call on the states governors to come to agreement. If the feds get involved it will just make matters worse, take years and billions to oversee, and probably in the end remove rights of legal gun owners. Seems the better option to me.
She should have known she could not enter NJ. To me it is her responsibility as a legal owner. However, I am glad she will not serve time – that seems senseless.