LEGISLATIVE REPORT
The truth is just
a phone call away
I have said many times that Facebook has
done more to spread rumors, misinforma-
tion and aimless anger than any invention in
the past 100 years. The recent burst of posts
regarding the impact of the badly written,
and ridiculously misinterpreted, magazine
capacity law has set a new low.
Keyboard warriors – sadly, some who are
ROB NIXON
NJ State PBA members – lashed out in an-
ger when county prosecutors decreed that
off-duty officers couldn’t carry handguns with more than
10 rounds in the magazine. They blamed the PBA for en-
dorsing Governor Murphy in 2017, as if the magazine ban
was somehow a deal we made or that a political endorse-
ment means we endorse 100 percent of the decisions he
makes. Silly statements were sent out on social media that
the NJ State PBA shouldn’t even be involved in politics.
But in all this noise, something was lost. With every Face-
book comment, one simple solution was never considered.
The reality is that the answer to all this consternation, and
the complete story of what we were doing about this law or
any other issue, was only a phone call away. Imagine that.
Rather than vent about what isn’t understood, all this could
easily have been addressed with a phone call to a State Del-
egate, who could then call the state president, executive
vice president or me for the honest, accurate and complete
picture.
The truth about the magazine capacity restriction on
off-duty officers dates back to early 2017, when the State
PBA warned the sponsors that the law was badly designed
and would certainly lead to an interpretation that law en-
forcement officers were not protected. When we pointed
out that active-duty officers needed the same protections
as retired officers, we were told by lawyers for the NJ State
Legislature that since officers have a “duty to act,” they
could never be considered “off duty” and the magazine
restrictions didn’t apply to them. We disagreed and urged
them to amend the bill before it became law. Unfortunate-
ly, gun laws in New Jersey are too often written to address
philosophical views on gun control, instead of the reality of
public safety and firearm use. The bill became law over our
objections.
Yet we immediately went to work to fix it. Our position,
and the fix to leave law enforcement out of this ban, were
discussed in meetings with State Delegates. Delegates with
questions regarding the law were provided answers with
the best information we had. And we pushed the legislature
10
NEW JERSEY COPS
■ DECEMBER 2018
hard to fix this before the county prosecutors’ directives
came out. Now, we can debate whether the prosecutors
should have used some common sense and not restricted
officers from carrying off duty like they did. But we were
already at work on this when they made their decisions.
As a result of our frustration with the law and our efforts,
Senate Bill 2846/Assembly Bill 4304 was quickly acted on
and sent to the governor to close this loophole and finish
what we suggested months ago. And instead of resorting to
responding to misinformed and angry Facebook posts, all
that information and more was available to all NJ State PBA
members simply by asking their delegates exactly what was
going on.
We are never going to agree with all politicians, Republi-
can or Democrat, 100 percent of the time. They are going to
make mistakes. They are going to screw up something easy,
like law enforcement exemptions in the magazine capacity
law. Or they will vote for something we oppose, like Senate
Bill 1036, which we also fought in the Assembly in Decem-
ber to prevent the attorney general from taking over inves-
tigations of police shootings from the county prosecutors.
But elected officials also get things right for us, too. Giv-
ing us real investment and management control of our
pension system is an obvious one. So is taking our sugges-
tions and passing a bill in December to expand the Class 3
law to every law enforcement agency in New Jersey. They
pass bills we support and oppose bills we don’t support all
the time. The people in Trenton trust us, and they listen to
us carefully.
It is therefore our obligation to speak truth to that power,
to stand up and tell them when they get it wrong and then
to use our strength to fix it. That is exactly what we did with
the magazine capacity law. That strength comes from a uni-
fied membership that is engaged politically to send us to
Trenton to represent our interests.
So the next time you hear about a stupid law or rumor
that doesn’t make sense, close Facebook, pick up your cell
phone and call your State Delegate to ask exactly what it
all means. You’ll get an honest, accurate and complete an-
swer. Something you will not get on Facebook.