Governor Christie Should Pardon Brian Aitken
Many on the right deeply admire New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s fearless attitude and his ongoing war with the state’s spoiled teachers’ unions has made him a political star. Pundits are already pushing Christie to consider a 2012 presidential run. For his part, Christie has quashed rumors he may be running, saying that he is dedicated to solving the problems of New Jersey.
That said, Christie is a politician. If the Republican primary field offers up no other strong contenders, he could be convinced to run for the White House — “for the good of the people,” of course.
But the biggest hurdle in the way of his 2012 run seems to be cropping up in a storm gathering around a mild-mannered media consultant and graduate student named Brian Aitken, who was sentenced to seven years in jail by the collusion of an incompetent judge and New Jersey’s unreasonable gun laws.
Aitken legally purchased two handguns at Bass Pro Shops while living in Colorado, after undergoing the required FBI background checks. When he planned to move back to New Jersey to be near his young son and estranged wife, he had the foresight to call the State Police to inquire about how he could legally transport his firearms.
While in New Jersey at his mother’s home, he became angry with his ex-wife when she denied him a chance to see their young son. He stormed out of the house in anger and went for a drive to cool off. His mother, a social worker, thought he may have sounded suicidal, called 911, and then hung up, thinking she probably overreacted. The police traced the call and showed up at her home, and then they placed a call to Aitken, who returned to his mother’s home and successfully reassured officers that, while he was distraught and stressed, he was hardly a suicide risk.
And then — for reasons not fully explained — police searched Aitken’s car, and at the bottom of his personal possessions found the disassembled firearms locked in cases inside a duffel bag. Then the problems began.
New Jersey and Colorado are on opposite ends of the gun-control spectrum. In Colorado, all he needed was the background check to own the guns. In the Garden State, Aitken was required to have a purchaser’s permit from New Jersey to own the guns and a carry permit to have them in his car.
He also was charged with having “large capacity” magazines and hollow-point bullets, which one state gun-control advocate found troubling: “What little I can glean about the transportation issue leaves me puzzled, but a person with common sense would not be moving illegal products from one place to another by car,” said Bryan Miller, executive director of Ceasefire NJ, an organization devoted to reducing gun violence.
Aitken couldn’t have a New Jersey purchaser’s permit, because he bought his handguns — after an FBI background check — in Colorado. Nor could he have a carry permit, having just moved back to the state. Most troubling, however, is that even though he had neither of these hard-to-acquire documents, he was protected under an exemption that allows gun owners to transport locked and unloaded firearms from one residence to another while moving.
So why is Aitken in prison?
I’ve been on the Governor’s facebook fan page for a about week now. I posted my own “Free Brian” comment, with respect, and now I periodically look in. More and more people are showing up to weigh in. It’s the most dominant topic going. When I first became of aware of this, I took a look at all the news I could find surrounding it. The Conservative New Jersey link, in the article breaks down the Governor’s positions very articulately. He is a conservative by New Jersey’s standards, but that doesn’t make him a freedom fighter of individual liberties.
I have a feeling the Governor does plan to let Brian Aitken rot, because he is already under enough political pressure due to the small dose of conservative thought he is injecting into the cesspool of liberalism that is New Jersey. The more people, however, that complain, the more he will at least have to consider it. He may be able to attack conservatives in New Jersey for their pro-gun positions, but that simply isn’t going to fly in a Republican primary, and I hope he knows that. He’ll ultimately have to decide who is more beneficial to his political campaign, the NRA or Ceasefire NJ.
The ultimate tragedy is that a law abiding citizen is looking at spending seven years in prison for a minor infraction of New Jersey’s convoluted firearms statutes. Had he been carrying drugs, every liberal outlet in American would be screaming bloody murder at the injustice. All we gun owners and gun rights advocates can do is continue to lobby Governor via every form of communication possible. Politicians are subject to the first law of political dynamics. Politicians in motion tend to remain in motion until acted upon by an outside force. It’s time to apply that force to Governor Christie, until he changes direction regarding pardoning, or at least allowing for a fair trial of Brian Aitken.
2nd Amendment litmus test for Gov. Christie.
tD
He already lost a great deal of respect after what I saw as a dissing he did to Palin on public TV. Looks like I have even more reasons to dislike him. I am unsure if there is much he could do to ever make me vote for him unless the only other choice was a lefty.
Something is not right here and any sane person can see it. However we are talking about New Jersey after all and these people are completely nuts which is why the wheels are falling of this place. What was the probable cause for the car search? We can’t look at a phonebook without Obama and Holder’s permission so how could a policemen do this search? Perhaps the wife knew about the weopons and told the police and this was the result?
It seems like a federal judge should step in to protect this guy’s rights. They will send the 101 st Airborne to Selma Alabama for racial equality but they won’t lift a finger for 2nd amendment protection. Driving in your car with weopons legally purchased in another state into the Peoples Republic of New Jersey is ripe for this kind of abuse. Why not set up road blocks on the main highways and fill up the prisons with people passing through?
Something is rotten about this case but hey, it’s Jersey, a state the is rotten to the core anyway.
While the 2nd amendment comes into play here, I believe, imho, that the real injustice is the fact that the the police even asked to search Brian’s car??? For what purpose and under what rule of law. He hadn’t broken any laws or was even suspected of breaking any laws. Since when is distraught and suicidal a criminal matter? Then the audacity of an activist judge to not enforce the rule of law, the Constitution of OUR great nation. That alone calls for the turnover of this conviction, not the many other current convictions.
Isn’t it strange that restrictive state gun laws are the only thing the tenth amendment doesn’t overrule as restraint of trade? It’s almost as if judges were making it up.
I wonder what else the State of New Jersey is going to find illegal? How about kitchen knives? They could be used as a weapon. Or how about baseball bats? They could be used as a weapon. Or how about golf clubs? They could be used as a weapon. Or how about a big stick? They could be used as a weapon too. In New Jersey, just about everything can be used as a weapon. Sometimes I really wonder why I still keep living here.
What’s next, you ask? That’s a good question, they’re already locking people up for having BB guns! 3 yrs of hard time for being in possession of a toy.
Only in NJ!
Yup, Brian Aitken ought to be released and the state made pay gazillions for violating his rights from A to Z.
The SCOTUS has ruled that it was his right to posses those legal weapons while traveling from one state to another, and hollow-points are not illegal in NJ.
Should this anti-Constitution Christie not pardon/release this wrongly imprisoned man, he’ll never be elected to any office anymore, except may at the ATF.
If this could happen to Aitken, David R. Olofson, and hundreds of others, it can and will happen to you, a law-abiding gun-owner.
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/atf-position-on-pistol-grip-shotguns-creates-new-danger
Free Brian Aitken at http://www.facebook.com/FreeBrianAitken
BTW, what the sentence for a rapist in NJ?
If Christie lets this conviction stand and an innocent man rot in prison, then he is a fraud and should be regarded as such on the national scene. I was not aware of his stance on these matters. My opinion of him has just done a 180.
Absolutely spot on. Nationally, he’s toast IMO.
Sorry to burst the New Jersey Judicial Systems bubble but you already knew were inept long before your Kangaroo Court took this law abiding citizen’s U.S. Constitutional Rights away from him. Just walk the mean streets of, Newark, Camden and so many areas like Plainfield. There you can and probably will meet up with the New Jersey revolving door criminals that maybe have spent a few weeks or months in jail before bond was posted or before a pre-sentencing hearings. These vicious psychopaths spent no real time in the New Jersey Penal System and guess what, they probably have been arrested, more than once even, for gun possession–the loaded and concealed kind. I hope the prosecutor and the judge get to experience the streets they created first hand. At night and unarmed.
Christie for President? Heh, this case alone would cause him to lose Texas.
This is both idiotic and lousy. My first question on reading this was when a grown man finally gets to be a grown-up these days. I’m sure he doesn’t blame his mother for calling the police, but for crying out loud. What a stupid society we live in now. Every domestic alarm has to become a police matter, regardless of how manifestly ridiculous that is. What, is this guy 14? No father at home, and his poor mother’s only recourse, when she feels like she can’t handle what he’s doing, is the police?
Sorry to rant, but this infantilization of the honest, hard-working, tax-paying public is an evil trend. Nanny-state prophylaxis is exactly what leads to injustice like that being visited on Brian Aitken. Our mothers are very dear to us, and there’s not much we can do about the unjustified alarms some of them are prone to; we love them anyway. But those fears should not govern our society’s posture on what life, liberty, and the privileges of adulthood mean.
AS an original “jerseyite” who fled The Regime 25 years ago, I can tell you a few things:
First off, if his Mother is a Social Worker in the Peoples Republik of Jersey, she is most likely a left wing nut bar Democrat Loonie Union Tool….only a niave Statist would ever think The State is there to “help” you. The State (particulary NJ) exists to feed itself, nothing more. I blame her for the whole thing. If any family member ever pulled that on me, I swear I would disown them on the spot.
Second, hollow points are NOT illegal in NJ. You can buy them at the Sports Authority, or K-Mart/Walmart if they stock them. They are as legal as any other small arms (pistol) ammunition EXCEPT….
When posessed in the comission of a felony…Its supposed to be the “bank robbery” scenario, where The State can chare a “felon” with additional crimes to add time to the sentence, or provide plea bargaining (you plead this, we drop that)
But The State is not interested in crime, or criminals. It IS interested in grabbing the low hanging fruit, the easy administrative nonesense like this case.
Theoretical “felons” due to self contradictory laws, have a legal product thats illegal only because they say so.
If he is entitled to own a firearm, and it IS indeed a constitutional right, why can he not transport it to and from whatever storage place he see’s fit?
Ha! You did leave NJ a long time ago. Sports Authority hasn’t sold ammo for about a decade. (Walmart and K-Mart in NJ haven’t in the 15 years I’ve lived here.
You are right about the hollow-points, they are legal. The local media just treats them like they are nuclear weapons – unless a cop uses them
This is a big test for Christie. He passed the first one by allowing a bear hunt (we have too many of them in the northwest part of the state). If he fails this one, he can kiss any national aspirations he has goodbye. His opponents will hang it around his neck like Romneycare.
Continuing:
The State of NJ is so strict, it only allows you to transport a firearm to and from a ligitimate shooting activity.
They can and do break balls on that rule too. If you were up at the crack of dawn to go hunting, and by 2:30 in the afternoon are hungry, best not linger too long in the Diner with your shotgun in the truck.
Sport shooters have it alot worse. At least cops get the fact there IS a “hunting season”, with thousands of guys in Blaze Orange with Shotguns at certain times of the year.
Service rifle match shooter? Try “explaining” a scary looking black rifle in a “tactical” looking gun case, the middle of summer, while changing a flat tire on the Parkway.
Any excuse, any infraction, any posible way to fit benign, normal “gun owner” circumstances into a criminal statute, they will do.
The State does NOT care about crime. If they did, they would procecute the gun runners and gang bangers under FEDERAL statutes that include 5 year Federal felony for the mere posession of a handgun by anyone under 21…thats every 18, 19 and 20 year old ever apprehended in the cities while packing a handgun. Thosands of them a year are let off easy.
Why? Because The State does NOT care about crime. They are only about expanding THEIR POWER over you. Criminals, REAL criminals, help them to do that.
Legal Gun owners are the antithisis of a State Power. Thats why they spend SO much time and effort castrating us, one by one, wherever and however they can find us.
I am sorry, but this is not the way to frame the discussion.
Have the NRA lawyers take care of the matter, sue all the authorities involved, for billions of dollars, and go up until the Supreme Court.
We have to stop ASKING for the respect of our rights, we have to enforce their respect.
And there are a lot of charities that badly need the money that can and must be won.
Counting on a former prosecutor in a blue state to reverse anti-2nd Amendment convictions? I’m not holding my breath. Guiliani and Christie are likely two peas in a pod in this regard. There is a big distinction between “government reform” fiscal Republicans like they are, and “individual liberty” Republicans who integrate personal liberty issues such as free speech, firearms rights, etc. with the problem of excessive taxation and bloated government. The fiscal “government reform” brand of Republicans have shown through the Guiliani-Bloomberg wing that they don’t care about personal liberty. Christie will likely follow suit.
Pardon is the wrong word here – the guy has done nothing wrong, so there’s nothing to be ‘pardoned’ for. A mistrial should be declared or the case dismissed and then Brian (with NO criminal record) and the NRA should enforce his rights. What kind of prosecutors do they have in NJ? Ignorant of their own laws re the exemption, as well as the Constitution. Jeez..Christie’s star is getting tarnished.
Unfortunately, they wont ever declare a mistrial
He is screwed on the Magazine Capacity issue. Regardless of how nonsensical it is from any rational standpoint, Jersey has a strict capacity limit on magazines, and you either had one (and youre screwed) or you didnt. Everything else in this case, legal or not, instanly becomes “illegal” according to The State, because of the contraband magazine.
Thus it follows:
The Magazine was illegal….therefore a felony…the handgun and its transportation MAY have been legal, but due to the presence of the illegal magazine, it now becomes “posession of a handgun while committing a felony”.
The hollow points are in the same catagory. Legal in and of themselves, but illegal to have while committing “other felonious activity”.
Its an administration word game, a case of “gottcha!” that procecutors love to play.
The “hollow points” and “assault magazine” create emotion to propel the case, (because “who NEEDS to have them anyway?”) and common sense, fairness and the actual INTENT of the law go out the window.
They happily demonstrate their ability to ruin/destroy the honest, decent, productive citizens like Brian, because THEY are the ones The State REALLY needs to control with FEAR, in order to fuel their perpetually expanding machine.
Real crime is not on their agenda, power and taxes are.
Just like when a good kids futures is destroyed because of “drugs” or “weapons” brought to school….over the counter antihistimine for your cold, or a small pair of scissors for art class, or swiss army knife in your fathers fishing tacklebox in the trunk of the car.
They purposely strike the innocent to put the fear into the rest of us.
Its all about proving who’s in charge, and consolodating power.
Left/libtardism… rule of law is no object!
The problem for Christie is that such a pardon would likely result in a deluge of appeals and pardon requests from those convicted on similar charges.
How many other people in N.J. are in jail for not having violated the law namely having in their possession guns packaged for travel with an incompetent judge willfully not informing the jury of such exemption?
Everyone of them should be pardoned so why is that a problem for Christie? Unless, you know, he is OK with the state being a lawbreaker.
Seems like there is a fair amount of missing information in the article, but that’s not keeping people from jumping to all sorts of conclusions. Unknown is why the police decided to search his car. There is also the hint of potential domestic violence, which is no laughing matter. Why are Aitken and his wife estranged? There is the issue of the mother calling 911. His guns were disassembled in the trunk, but the exemption applies to weapons being transported intact. Why would he need a New Jersey document showing purchase of guns that were not purchased in New Jersey. Did he make himself aware of the carry permit issue for New Jersey? Was his intent to simply own the guns or to actually carry a gun on his person?
The big issue is the position of his lawyer on all this; asking for a mistrial seems appropriate, and a re-trial or even dropping of the charges.
#17 Penny: “…then Brian (with no criminal record) and the NRA should enforce his rights…..” Why bring the NRA into this? The job of securing justice belongs to his attorney.
#18 Anonymous: “left/libtardism…rule of law is no object.” Well, that makes a lot of sense. The issue is one of an apparently incompetent judge; not political ideology. Who cares what Christie’s opinion is? Again, where is Aitken’s lawyer in all this?
What in hell is potential domestic violence? There is always the potential you will take a baseball bat to some kid so lets outlaw baseball bats and throw YOU in jail.
Seems like there is a fair amount of missing information in the article,
Actually, there’s not. If you want to argue that the information is wrong, make your case, but why the mom called the police, that he hadn’t threatened anybody, that the guns were stored for transport, that he owned the guns legally etc. is all there.
And as regard to jumping to conclusions “hint of potential domestic violence” what indication do you have for it or are you just, you know, jumping to a conclusion?
And are you suggesting that the exemption ONLY applies to weapons being transported intact. That’s what you wrote.
The NRA, the ACLU, and everybody and his mother should be screaming for Atkins to be released. Did you miss the part about it being a seven-year sentence?
“A Conservative is a Liberal who was mugged yesterday.”
I wonder if his Liberal Mom is still so Liberal?
Hmm, yeah, probably.
It’s a travesty that a nonviolent man with a completely clean record, an exemplary record, should be subjected to a prison sentence.
I hope Governor Christie will do the right thing, the JUST thing, and pardon this man.
Hmm. A quick look at the two cases that have been cited as reasons for not reinstating him suggest the guy did nothing wrong. If anyone can come up with a rational reason why the judge’s decision in the “bizarre animal cruelty” case wasn’t correct or consistent with the law, or his comment about the age of consent was wrong or inappropriate, let’s hear it.
Don’t rule out the possibility that those cases are just cover for another reason. Judges have to follow the law. It’s unreasonable (and of some concern) if a governor tries to get rid of judges who applies laws that said governor doesn’t like. There’s no positive way to spin that.
As a life member of the NRA I feel they should be in the thick of this case getting into court for an appeal and overturn of the conviction along with a possible lawsuit for false arrest and imprisonment. The idea of a pardon when no crime has been committed is wrong.
The Law applies to everyone. He broke the law. Justice is defined by the US Supreme Court as “being allowed to go through the Court System”, not right or wrong, guilty or innocent, shocking but true look it up.
Bob Owens and his lame “opinions” mean less than Zero. What has Bob Owens EVER done in his life but go to school and sit behind a keyboard and bitch and moan about whatever he thinks will get him fame and attention.
The guy here is guilty, he has no right to anything but what we all have the right to, expensive lawyers and wasted time in Court.
Justice is defined by the US Supreme Court as “being allowed to go through the Court System”, not right or wrong, guilty or innocent,
So a sentence can’t be overturned or a man pardoned? More non-thinking from a brain-washed sheeple.
Regarding the SCOTUS being the final arbiter of everything, if it ruled for you to jump off a bridge would you do it? I’d like to see that put to the test regarding yourself.
Never said anything about a Pardon, Bill. Completely separate issue.
I personally think the SCOTUS is way out of line on numerous issues.
My Point was “we are all subject to the Law, good bad or ugly” and this half baked moron Ownens and his slightly, at best researched opinions and almost baseless conclusions are as much a part of our society’s problems as all the other incorrect things happening.
Many of his articles would require months of going over Legal Documents to figure out the truth. But not Owens he works a full time job at a Publicly Computer Company and is so “intelligent” he can just figure out the answers to the Free World in 15 minutes hiding behind his keyboard.
Owens writes an article about “armed revolution against the US Government”, just brilliant, usually the revolutions end up with the writers, some politicians and other educated class shot first.
Anything this Owens writes should be taken with “less than a grain of Salt and even more scrutiny of facts and truth.”
I would like to find out the truth on this case but it won’t be from Owens and his lack of actual research. Owens wants to be famous not accurate or truthful, read his articles. All opinion and little truth at best.
That is my opinion.
Thomas,
The Brian Aitken matter is starting to percolate a bit in the Philly metro area and while I have not done any original research on this, what I’ve been hearing jibes with what Owens wrote.
Here’s what the Philadelphia Daily News, which is not known for its pro-2A or conservative views, says about the matter.
And even if Aitken violated the letter the law — and of course the argument being made is that it was Judge Morley who was the one who violated the letter of the law in refusing a request for information from a jury — getting seven years for what he did is wrong.
And we have a right, and obligation, to scream that what happened is wrong and to demand true justice — which at the minimum is release from prison — regardless of how the SCOTUS or any other court or how the letter of the law attempts to define justice.
We are Americans. We are allowed to do this. We often win when we do.
He is not guilty. There are exceptions. The jury asked for those exceptions to be read, and the judge that allowed a cop who forced fellatio on calves go free, REFUSED to allow the exceptions to be read. You go look it up. Can’t wait till the “Law” catches up to you one day. As Cicero said, the more law, the less justice. I believe that to be true, but in this case, Aitken broke NO law. It’s simpletons like you that are going to get us all put in chains!
Rik, I agree with the fact the LAW is out of control. Read what I wrote and try and comprehend plain English.
“Can’t wait till the “Law” catches up to you one day.” is exactly what I am saying when I say “the law applies to all of us.”
Justice is defined by the US Supreme Court as “being allowed to go through the Court System”, not right or wrong, guilty or innocent, ( I put this in because it is so ridiculous that the SCOTUS ruled such.
How about when the SCOTUS took away the private property of the people in New England!!! Where was our outrage then!
He is Guilty BECAUSE he was found guilty, that is the sad but true fact of this nonsense. It is horrible. BY the definition of our LAW, he received Justice. Sickening isn’t it.
The SCOTUS also ruled that an attorney isn’t breaking the Law when they Lie in Court! What, no way, yes because they are “not under Oath”!
However, my main focus was on how these Morons in the Media just sit back and spew half of this and part of that for the sole purpose of their own fame and fortune. Thank God Bob Owens isn’t on TV!!!
And thank God this Country isn’t run by worse people than it already is, Like Media clowns who sensationalize and report half of this and a piece of that, like BOB OWENS. People who have done nothing in their lives but complain and Judge others because they are frustrated wannabe’s.
Cicero was right.
Let Liberty Flow Free! HELP RIGHT THIS and future WRONGS!
We The People of The United States request all people in America who abide and cherish their freedom and constitution, and all people of the World to JOIN “Governor Christie Fan Page” on FACEBOOK and opartake in the posting and request, demand, and spread the word to Force the Governor of NJ to free Brian Aitken, and to relegislate New Jersey Gun Laws to jive with The Constitution.
SteveB/Colorado: “#18 Anonymous: “left/libtardism…rule of law is no object.” Well, that makes a lot of sense. The issue is one of an apparently incompetent judge; not political ideology.”
3,800 years ago, Hammurabi put forth the first written code of law (which advised people what they could/couldn’t do and stopped the authorities from imprisoning/excuting people for what they just felt they didn’t like personally at the time) which is the starting point for government by laws and not men (Rule of Law) and our own Constitution. Aitken is in prison because the authorities there felt like it and they can do anything they can’t be stopped from doing. This is not what our founders intended– the exact opposite, in fact.
The even bigger contrast between my state of Colorado and New Jersey is: Any adult can LEGALLY carry a loaded concealed gun in their vehicle, no permit of any type required. In Colorado, the court has ruled that a person’s vehicle is an extension of their home and therefore we have the right to defend ourselves in our home and cars. Another big difference– we don’t have the violent street crime common place in NJ cities, big and small. Finally, in El Paso County, Colorado, the Sheriff encourages citizens to get CCW permits; he goes as far as passing our applications at CCW Classes.
Take that Garden(?) state.
Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/causes-and-organizations-articles/the-curious-case-of-brian-aitken-3755179.html#ixzz17qVk69w1
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
Christie just opened up a can of worms. Their will be appeals all over the place now.
ANJRPC should help Aitken declare his innocence. This is the same mistake that NJ made with Revell when they falsely imprisoned him for declaring his firearm within the law at a New Jersey airport.
It’s all a matter of time before New Jersey turns into another version of Hell. Pretty soon, if things keep going the way that they’re going now, the NJ state laws will have no relevance whatsoever. Once crime starts rising as a result of our economy being destroyed, we can all forget what NJ state has to say about its gun laws and start defending ourselves. We’ll even have to defend ourselves against cops and other law enforcement agancies because they’ll be breaking the law more than any “small-time” felon. I hope I am able to move before that happens.