Traveling with a gun (NJ to PA)

to blume...

well, why should I travel with ammo in this particular circumstance? Again, I don't have a carry permit, so I'd have to lock the thing in the trunk, unloaded anyway. It's not like someone's going to try and carjack me on the turnpike and I'm going to ask them to hold on while I go into my trunk, unlock the gun, unlock the ammo, load the magazine, etc. etc. Without a carry permit, having the ammo just gives the police a possible angle to persecute me (for not having it separately locked up or somesuch... the law is not clear on what is an empty gun in NJ)... no thanks, I'll stick to being pessimistic on what the law allows as the cost is to high to be wrong.

to chopz
"before you come back over the border to nj, be sure and stop at a walmart and pick up a thousand rounds of ammo. you'll be glad you did"

god forbid I did this and got pulled over... they'd think I was planning to wage a small war. For the record, I'd probably be driving my mid-size SUV, not my car, so the "trunk" isn't really a trunk, just a space behind the second row of seats -- i.e. 1000 rounds of ammo would be visible to them as they peek their way around the car, even from the outside through tinted glass. I've had bad experiences with NJ highway cops and the few times I've challenged them in court (speeding tickets, nothing serious), they've felt free to lie as much as they like comfortable in the knowledge that it's their word versus mine. It's not a pleasant situation to be in.
 
god forbid I did this and got pulled over... they'd think I was planning to wage a small war.
Click to expand...

Doesn't matter one iota. They can "think" all they want, it is what they can "prove" that is key. You would appear to be, in reality, a citizen who is exercising his legal right to purchase and transport ammunition. Follow the law. Simple as that.

I understand the culture you are enduring...I was born and raised in NJ. It can be difficult sometimes to overcome the mentality that the establishment is watching your every movement...but you must overcome it...in spite of the media hype and the anti-gun bureaucracy there.

That said, I am so very glad I got the heck out of NJ. I will never go back. Besides, taxes and insurance rates there are astronomically high...I couldn't afford to live there.

As far as :
they've felt free to lie as much as they like comfortable in the knowledge that it's their word versus mine.
Click to expand...

That is very unfortunate. I know many NJ LEO's and every single last one of them I would entrust them with my daughter and life savings without hesitation. They are all honorable and fine men and women.
 
I didn't mean to use a broad brush against NJ LEO's, but when it comes to the experiences I've had in traffic stops on the NJ turnpike, they are well aware of the fact that whatever they say is likely to be viewed as the truth.

I can't rely on getting lucky that the particular officer I end up with is a good one or not. Absolute power corrupts, as they say. I'm not planning to give them any more "ammo" (pun intended) then needed to make up a story that puts me in a bad light. [So, your honor, I pulled him over for speeding and noticed he had 2 handguns and 1000 rounds of ammo in the back.... etc etc... Somehow, I don't think that would benefit me.]

For anyone thinking just sticking to your rights is enough, well, you haven't been to enough courtrooms lately. While I certainly DO push my own rights heavily, I still try to "defend" myself in advance by not putting myself in a weak position, acknowledging that in a "my word against theirs", I'm likely to lose unless I get very lucky with the judge.

Local municipal courts in NJ and NY are run like little dictatorships... they do whatever the hell they want, knowing that most people won't stand up for themselves. The prosecutors are shifty little jerks and the judges are tyrants. I had a first amendment case I had to settle versus a judge, even enlisting the ACLU to do so (the judge got a big smackdown on that, and I got him in trouble with the NJ Supreme Court after the fact, but who knows how many people he stepped on prior to getting to me); I don't want to have to repeat that with a second amendment case unless necessary.

Just a month ago, I was stopped at 1am on the NJ turnpike for seemingly nothing. First off, I was traveling at a normal rate of speed with the wife and kid in the back on a nearly deserted highway... I see a vehicle approaching me VERY rapidly, easily doing well over 100... I slow down and get the hell out of the way by moving into the right most lane and instead of passing me, the vehicle slides in behind me so close I'm afraid he's going to smack into me. I ease off the gas and slow down more (to about 50 in a 65 zone) hoping they'll just go around me and instead the lights come on. [Between the time of day and the tinted windows and mirrors, it was too dark for me to identify the vehicle as a police car.] Anyway, he asks me why I slowed down and said it seemed suspicious; he also said that he pulled me over "officially" for not 'keeping right' (mind you, this is at 1am, practically no one at all is on the highway)... I tell him as far as I know, I see a car racing up behind me then 'following' me and with the wife and kid in the back, I'm not taking chances that its a drunk or somesuch... as far as traveling in the left as opposed to the right, I had switched over just b/c there was a bit of merging action in the other lanes previously and I didn't really think much about it since the highway was nearly deserted... {hell, I WISH they'd actually ticket some people for not getting out of the left lane during normal traffic... but not at 1am when no one is one the road and I'm not exactly impeding anyone (AND since, as he came up behind me at 100+, I did actually get out of the way, so what's the complaint other than b.s.?)} I think he was hoping I'd be some single guy he could push around, but likely upon hearing his own words and seeing my wife and baby in the back, he felt foolish enough to just say 'goodnight' and carry on. (no ticket was issued)
 
As a counterpoint to the above, in order to get a permit in NJ just to buy any gun, you need to go to your local police station and fill out forms and get fingerprinted. The detective that helped me with this was a great guy and another officer from the same group did a check on my infant seats at my wife's request (to see that they were installed good and tight, etc.). He himself complained bitterly and without provocation about the state police and you'd think they were all buddy buddy...
 
God Bless Denny Nau, Sheriff
Actually believes that law abiding citizens should be able to carry a handgun, how novel. And believe it or not, he's a democrat!
Click to expand...


Hey, even a Democrat is entitled to a lucid thought!
 
What makes transporting the gun in PA legal is that it is NOT illegal. The totality of all U.S. law is that a thing is legal unless it is specifially made illegal.

So, you should be more concerned about NJ law, which I have been told is made up on the spot by the police.

The best practice is to lock the gun in a case, in the trunk with the ammunition separate and also in the trunk.

And don't do anything stupid like blowing past a police car at 105 waving the gun out the window and shouting "off the pigs."

Jim
 
For whatever my two cents is worth, I think "discretion" is the operative word. When traveling to various ranges, I routinely criss-cross the CT-NY border. I have a valid CT carry permit, but when stepping over the line, I make sure what I'm bringing to the range is secured in the car trunk (with either a trigger lock and/or case lock), separate from the accompanying rounds (secured in a 2nd case). I'd rather err on the side of extra safety than to risk being hassled unnecessarily.
 
NYC is an utter nightmare. I have an acquaintance from work who is a gun nut (and an extremely avid cowboy action shooter) who happens to live on Staten Island (a borough of New York City for those who don't know). I can't imagine ever going shooting with him using my own guns.

After reading about the atrocities that happened to the people who made the mistake of flying through NYC with guns (one guy was jailed for 5 days or somesuch) AND after being barraged with the signs on the subway that say
"illegal gun = 3 years in prison, mandatory, no questions asked", I wouldn't bring my guns into or through NYC without a letter from the mayor himself.
 
(I'd buy and fully use the ammo at the range.)
Click to expand...

you must be a millionare, why waste money like that ?

Anyway, I'm in NYC. my first nonres permit was PA.

I transport from NYC through Jersey and into PA alot. Locked box, ammo seperate. Never been hassled, never even got stopped by any cop.

Guy at the firing range, Front street and greenwich, near the penndot, said it is fine to do so, locked box and etc...

Buy ammo for cheap at walmart. ( which isnt so cheap, I been to a few walmarts in PA and the prices are NOT really that good )
 
"illegal gun = 3 years in prison, mandatory, no questions asked",
Click to expand...

baloney scare tactic. AS if there was no second , and no forth.

and it says get caught carrying an illegal gun = 3 years... but how are you ever going to get caught ? They make the police sound more powerful than they really are, and NYC, millions of idiots who will believe anything...
 
A scare tactic enforced by the police and a politically charged campaign is scary enough if you ask me. Ask the guy who went to jail for 5 days for having the displeasure of passing through a NYC airport, and he wasn't doing anything illegal at all. (Hopefully he'll get a nice settlement out of it.)
 
As a fellow suffering PRNJ citizen, I can tell you my experience. My wife and I both have our non-resident Fla. and NH CCW permits. We go to PA frequently, and carry whenever we do. Until you get your Fla. permit, you are good to go as long as you keep everything locked in the trunk, unloaded, with the ammunition stored separately from the guns.

Sherriff Nau is a great advocate of 2A rights, however he will not issue a non-resident CCW permit to a resident of PRNJ, as we are considered a "may issue" state, even though he knows that noone is ever approved that isn't super rich, or politically connected.

We continue to plan our escape form the PRNJ to the real USA.
 
Sherriff Nau is a great advocate of 2A rights, however he will not issue a non-resident CCW permit to a resident of PRNJ, as we are considered a "may issue" state, even though he knows that noone is ever approved that isn't super rich, or politically connected.
Click to expand...

New York is a "may issue" state as well, and he certainly does issue non resident CCW licenses as I have one and so do many others. You just need to have a license from your home state period. Doesn't matter if it is restricted to "target" or some other bull****. Took two weeks.
 
VJ,
Do you mean you have to have a CCW from your home state for him to issue a PA CCW?

When I called, I told them I had my NJ FOID, and Fla. CCW. They would not issue to me unless I had a NJ CCW, which as I posted is nigh impossible to get.
 
In New York State, all handgun licenses are carry when issued BUT In Nassau and Suffolk county (here on Long Island) and a few counties upstate the licensing authority can put "restrictions" on these licenses. These restrictions have no legal weight whatsoever, but if they are not adhered to it is grounds for them to revoke the license. Most of us in Suffolk have so called "sportsmen" licenses meaning we can carry to and from the range concealed and loaded. They are not full carry 24 hour a day licenses like a PA license is. No one gets a Suffolk full carry license without showing life threatening need for one, or being a celebrity or rich.

Anyway, I submitted to Centre county my application with photo copy of my "sportsmen" restriction on my license and was issued a non resident carry license for PA.
 
Think of it this way. Living in New Jersey is like living behind the iron curtain. Once you cross that bridge into Pennsylvania, your FREE ! You can transport your firearms without harassment, as long as you follow the few simple rules, like cased firearms, unloaded, and ammo in separate locked box. The police here are not freaked out when they encounter a private citizen with a firearm, and are quite used to it. Don't forget, most of us in PA have our carry permits, and transporting is no big deal. So those of you in New Jersey who would like to come to PA and shoot at one of our ranges, or clubs, you are more that welcome.
 
Take you up on that sometime.
Just in case, I not only have a PA carry, I have or will shortly have a NH, FL and UT...four of them all good in PA ought to cover me. :D
 
VJ,

I reside in NYC, and have what is referred to as a "Residence Permit". It use to be a Target Permit until they did away with that type. I've just printed a copy of the PA CCL and would like to know if all I have to do is enclose a copy of my permit with the application. Would my permit be sufficient enough to get the PA CCL license. Thanks in advance.
 
VJ,

I reside in NYC, and have what is referred to as a "Residence Permit". It use to be a Target Permit until they did away with that type. I've just printed a copy of the PA CCL and would like to know if all I have to do is enclose a copy of my permit with the application. Would my permit be sufficient enough to get the PA CCL license. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I can say I myself knows that PA sherriff Denny Nau will issue upon you already having your own state's carry permit, IF YOUR STATE HAS a ccw permit to issue.

Now. I myself have a NYC permise permit and have applied and recieved a PA ccl. Is it because Sherriff Denny knows that it is next to impossible to get a carry permit in NYC ? or was it an oversight ? I dunno.

but for the small fee, send it in anyway. You might get approved like I did.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top