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Florida woman arrested in New Jersey

3K views 49 replies 27 participants last post by  RenegadeGlocker 
#1 ·
Elizabeth J. Griffith, 52, of Daytona Beach, was arrested in Jersey City while attempting to board a ferry to Ellis Island while carrying a gun. Griffith "knowingly possessed a firearm in the state of New Jersey without a permit." Griffith has a Florida CCW.

She is charged with a second degree offense, which carries a possible sentence of five to 10 years in state prison.




Disagree with the law all you want, but DO NOT break the law. You will get jacked up.
 
#3 ·
I remain amazed when people have difficulty with the law in New Jersey when they are from out of state - it seems like a couple of incidents there have had a fair amount of national news coverage.
 
#12 ·
No - most gun owners don't read about guns, pay attention to guns, customize their guns or any of the stuff we talk about here. Most of them buy a gun in a store and have it and maybe shoot it a little the first year, to see if it works. People who spend time comparing guns and buying the best holster and worrying about what kind of ammo to carry are a minority.
 
#8 ·
I remain amazed when people have difficulty with the law in New Jersey when they are from out of state - it seems like a couple of incidents there have had a fair amount of national news coverage.
I would think that all gun owners are aware of NJ's gun laws.
How do so many ccw holders not read up the local laws of the places they plan to carry?
It is interesting, but how many incidents have happened in the last 5-years? Here is a 2013 piece from The New York Times...
Legal Guns en Route to New York Are Cause for Arrest Before Flight Home
By MICHAEL WILSON JUNE 9, 2013

A subset of visitors to New York City looks, on the surface, just like the rest. Some are high profile, like the boxer this year, and the football player, and the Tea Party leader from California. They are joined by the anonymous: the military wife from Minnesota, and the hazardous waste expert. There was a minister, and a surgeon, and someone in pest control.

What sets them apart is what each brings along on a visit to the city. A handgun. The guns are legally owned, with the home state permits all in order. The visitors have locked the gun in a box and checked it at the local airport, as they were told to do by the airline. But for these visitors, the trip to New York will almost certainly end in handcuffs and felony weapons charges, and their flights home will leave without them.

“They’re so used to carrying it,” said Dennis B. Coppin, a lawyer who has represented defendants in airport gun arrests. He described clients who don’t realize that the laws of the state they are leaving do not apply in the state where they are headed. They had tried to do the right thing.

“They contact the airline and say, ‘I want to bring my gun with me. How do I do this?’ ” said Martin D. Kane, a criminal defense lawyer in Queens. The travelers are told that the gun must be packed, unloaded, into a preapproved lockbox.

The visitor arrives in New York and retrieves the gun. No problem there. They see the city, whether armed or with the gun locked away at the hotel, without incident.

Trouble arrives upon their return to La Guardia Airport or Kennedy Airport to fly home. The visitors repeat the procedure practiced at their home airport, presenting the firearm to a gate agent to be checked. Only this time, the gate agent calls police officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the airports. The gun owners are then placed under arrest.

There were 42 arrests for gun possession in the two airports in 2012, according to the Queens district attorney’s office. Some charges of criminal possession of a weapon bring minimum sentences of three and a half years in prison. Like many arrested in New York, the gun owners can wait a day or more behind bars for a hearing before a judge.
There is more in the article including statements by some of the victims of NY carry laws...
 
#7 ·
Elizabeth J. Griffith, 52, of Daytona Beach, was arrested in Jersey City while attempting to board a ferry to Ellis Island while carrying a gun. Griffith "knowingly possessed a firearm in the state of New Jersey without a permit." Griffith has a Florida CCW.

She is charged with a second degree offense, which carries a possible sentence of five to 10 years in state prison.


Disagree with the law all you want, but DO NOT break the law. You will get jacked up.
Absolutely...

The article does say, "Griffith was cooperative when arrested around 12:30 p.m. at a screening station prior to boarding the ferry, Rubino said, adding that the gun was in a holster..."

I wonder, will Christie intervene?
 
#13 ·
I wonder, will Christie intervene?
In what way?

He cannot strong arm the Prosecutor, he cannot Pardon her until she is charged and convicted. At this point, what can he "legally" do?
 
#10 ·
This is from National Review...
Gun owners flying through N.Y and N.J. shouldn’t be arrested when they check their guns.
We are all miserably accustomed to being informed that our rights must be curtailed because the Founders “couldn’t have imagined” the way in which they would eventually be exercised. “Well, sure it made sense to have an armed population back when the people only had muskets,” this argument tends to go. “But now that four-year-old children can buy semi-automatic nuclear death-rays with their Happy Meals, it’s just anachronistic.”
The really good stuff is toward the end of this article...
 
#11 ·
I agree, people should know the law. However, it may be difficult to comprehend that something that is completely legal in one state, can get you 20 years in jail in another.

I live close to the border. It still perplexes me the number of charges I could face if I miss my exit.
 
#20 ·
New Jersey is in violation of the Constitution. We really don't have many choices. We can never go to parts of the United States where our freedoms aren't recognized, go while armed and risk being arrested, or go unarmed and risk not having a powerful tool to defend ourselves. How much is your life worth?
 
#26 ·
#28 ·
From your link...
on August 01, 2015 at 8:45 PM, updated August 02, 2015 at 9:03 AM

WATERLOO, Iowa — Campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination Saturday, Gov. Chris Christie said he'll likely pardon several out-of-staters legally permitted to carry their firearms in their home states who have been recently arrested in New Jersey under the Garden State's tough gun laws.

Elizabeth J. Griffith, of Daytona Beach, Fla., was arrested by U.S. Park Police on July 14 during a visit to Liberty State Park in Jersey City and charged with unlawful possession of a firearm. She could face a ten year prison sentence because her Florida state-issued permit to carry a handgun is not recognized by New Jersey.

"We've done it right from the beginning," said Christie, "and we'll continue do it."...

...Christie said he supported introducing a firearm permit reciprocity law that would honor out-of-state gun carry permits, but didn't expect the Democratic-controlled legislature to cooperate.

"I think the law is wrong," said Christie. "We need to be smarter about the way we do this. What I don't want is for folks to feel like they can't come into our state, and be able to travel through it, or visit it, and have to make sure they go on the Internet and look up exactly how you're supposed to be dealing with the gun laws."

Christie referred to Brian Fletcher, a North Carolina man volunteering to make emergency, storm-related utility repairs in Mercer County who is facing possible prison time for a felony gun charge after telling a police officer in Hamilton that he had a handgun in his vehicle.

"We have this gentleman who we're considering right now for pardon, from North Carolina who was up here, helping New Jersey after the storm to repair cell towers," said Christie. "This is just not the right way to do these things. This was not a guy who was a threat to anybody."...

...Reached by NJ Advance Media by phone, state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), said Christie was right: Senate Democrats do not support loosening the state's gun laws, which are among the toughest in the nation.

"I'm not going to prejudge this Florida woman's case," said Lesniak. "Does she deserve a pardon? Probably. But we shouldn't open the floodgates and model New Jersey's gun laws on Alabama's. The system works."
 
#29 ·
Just another idiot doing an idiotic thing. If you don't like the consequences, then don't be an idiot. Do some research before you go, make sure what you intend to do is legal where you intend to do it.
 
#35 ·
Prolly won't.

Might just be that he actually believes the Graves Act is a Bad Law and as he cannot himself repeal it or modify it, he is just going to do the Right thing and pardon law abiding citizens that get caught up in it.
 
#42 ·
I live in PA and could be in NJ in a matter of 20 mins, I'm from the area so I know as sure as I know the sky is blue NEVER EVER cross the demilitarized zone while carrying. That being said I try to go there as little as humanly possible. But Jersey really has to decide if they really want to keep destroying the lives of good people over something like this. I agree completely about researching the laws of the place you are going but I guess it also goes to where you live in the country. Living in PA I have a unique vantage point from other gun owners. I live in a gun friendly state but am surrounded on most boarders (excluding West Virginia) by some of the worst states for gun rights in the country so I am forced to learn those laws well. For someone from Florida that is only surrounded by gun friendly states in the southeast I can see how one might not fathom the idea that there are states where you could do 10 years in prison for something perfectly legal in your own state.

To the State of New Jersey I say this, there is a major difference between someone carrying an illegally acquired gun with no permit and an individual who has gone through the proper channels, received a carry permit from their home state carrying a legal firearm!!!. Stop treating these people like criminals, if you want to have ridiculous gun laws fine, but stop making examples of those who have no intent of wrong doing.

That is the whole thing that New Jersey is missing in all of this, Intent of the individual.
 
#45 ·
Based on my gut I would say it's probably less than one would think. But without the data I couldn't say for sure.

I think far more people take chances without fully understanding the law. Than knowing what they are doing is illegal and doing it anyway.
 
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