Bill To Toughen Penalties For Illegal Gun Possession In Schools Advanced By Assembly Panel

An Assembly committee today advanced legislation that upgrades the penalty for carrying a firearm in school buildings and grounds. The bill was sponsored by by Assemblywoman Linda Stender.

“We send our children to school so they can exercise their right to an education and a better way of life,” said Stender (D-Middlesex/Somerset/Union). “We should not have to worry about whether they’ll return home at the end of the day. It seems as if every week we read about another senseless tragedy involving gun violence in our schools. The only way to be proactive against this threat is to combine vigilance with a tougher, no-nonsense approach to weapons possession.”

The bill would upgrade the penalty for possessing a firearm in or upon any part of the buildings or grounds of any school, college, university or other educational institution without the written authorization of the governing officer of the institution.

Under current law, the unlawful possession of a firearm in or upon the buildings or grounds of any educational institution is a crime of the third degree. A crime of the third is punishable by imprisonment for a term of three to five years, a fine of up to $15,000 or both.

This bill would upgrade the penalty to a crime of the second degree, which is punishable by a term of imprisonment of five to 10 years, a fine of up to $150,000 or both.

Upgrading the penalty for this particular firearms violation would bring it into conformance with the penalties currently imposed for the possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose (subsection a. of N.J.S.2C:39-4) and the unlawful possession of a handgun (subsection b. of N.J.S.2C:39-5).

The measure was approved by the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee and now awaits consideration by the full Assembly. TLS.

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5 COMMENTS

  1. N.J law makes no distinction between transporting a gun for legal purposes or transporting a gun for illegal purposes with evil intent, they are all the same in N.J’s Evil gun laws. For instance if someone is on the way back from the shooting range with his gun locked in the trunk and he stops at his kids school to pick him up, if caught he must (no latitude for leniency given to the judge) get 7- 10 years in prison the same as if someone was caught with a gun on the way to kill someone or rob a bank. now if that is not evil keep voting in these demorats subhumans fight back join the NJ2AS

  2. Why everytime there is anything about a bill about illegal things they always show Lakewood High School? That school doesn’t have all the problems, maybe at some point of time you could show a picture of a private school, maybe they aren’t perfect also. Why is it that illegal is alway refered to public schools?

  3. #2 I have yet to see a police car parked outside a private school all day from 9-5 and no they are not there because public schools serve donuts

  4. They are outside the schols because most public schools use police as securty personal. The police car doesn’t mean trouble. I can knickpick with you all you want.

Comments are closed.