New Jersey is a state notoriously hostile to gun owners. Ginny Simone has filed several reports from the Garden State documenting the injustices fought by those caught in the crosshairs of the state’s draconian gun laws.
Thanks to Simone’s work and other attention brought to these cases, Gov. Chris Christie has promised to pardon any law-abiding gun owner ensnared by New Jersey’s onerous gun laws. He’s kept to his word and has pardoned more than a dozen individuals during his tenure, including Brian Fletcher, Steffon Josey-Davis and Shaneen Allen.
The latest pardons came this past week, to two military veterans who were changed with bringing their legally owned firearms into New Jersey, a state that doesn’t recognize permits from any other state. Michael A. Golden, a former Army medic who served in Vietnam and received a Purple Heart, and Marine Corporal James Michael Thaddeus Pedersen both received pardons.
A better solution to this ongoing problem would be not to rely on the governor to right the wrong, but to restore Second Amendment rights to all citizens—whether residents of New Jersey or travelers to the state.
