You arrest a fully licensed security guard for carrying illegal ammunition but that ammo is specifically stated by name to be allowable as ‘non-hollow’ point by the state. All for a tinted window stop.
You would be New Jersey.
Roosevelt Twyne, 25, is a licensed security guard with a permit from the State of New Jersey to carry a firearm. The Critical Duty ammunition he had (and was arrested for) was given to him for work by his employer and in accordance with New Jersey law.
New Jersey has subsequently railroaded the young man with the illegal carry and illegal ammo charges anyway.
This is a potent example of the excesses of government via gun control. Twyne has a constitutional and natural right to carry a firearm. It is Twyne’s job to carry a firearm as an armed security guard. Twyne’s employer provided ammunition in compliance with New Jersey law, the fact that the law is patently stupid is unfortunately beside the point. Twyne has the appropriate license from the state to exercise his right.
Despite having done all the things the state requires to not be arrested over a firearm, Twyne was arrested over the firearm and approved ammo. The one thing that is expressly not supposed to happen because you paid your ‘rights tax’ and checked the list to make sure what you were using was on the ‘good list’.
Nappen said the ammunition that led to Twyne’s arrest was the same ammunition issued by his employer. He also pointed to a New Jersey State Police website that says the polymer-tipped Hornady “Critical Duty” ammunition in question is “not considered to be hollow point ammunition” and not illegal to possess in the state—the website goes so far as to specifically name “Critical Duty” as an example of legal ammunition.
“It’s lawful,” Nappen told the Free Beacon. “It’s publicly announced as lawful because it is. It’s not hollow. It’s filled.”
A state whose central government is fervently against their people exercising the right to bear arms will ultimately not care what ‘provisions’ they put in place for its exercise. The state mentality is against an armed citizenry, they will act and err on the side of the state and people like Twyne will suffer for it. If the state mentality were different, even with the laws still in place, institutional thinking would be more likely to side with Twyne.
I’ve seen it here in my home state as we got further and further into our shall issue concealed carry. Officers in the state largely don’t care that someone they interact with is armed, its normal. They expect to run into it and it is no more bothersome than any other traffic stop or interaction. Behavior is where my friends in Michigan law enforcement always take their que, being armed is normal, but does someone’s behavior merit action?
In New Jersey and states like it, you know who they are, the very act of being armed is seen as a suspicious act. It’s evidently clear that, regardless of politicos lip service to national or state constitutions and protecting the rights of their citizens, they don’t believe it. At least where being lawfully armed is concerned, they at their very core do not believe anyone (except them of course, they’re special) have the need to access defense. They cannot fathom it, there is a fundamental disconnect in their reasoning even if they can run the logic through on a parallel tangent.
It’s maddening, and it hurts people like Roosevelt Twyne.
