Another New Jersey municipality has adopted a pro-Second Amendment resolution, following a lengthy debate touching on gun laws, domestic violence, self-defense, misinformation and even a reference to weapons restrictions in Nazi Germany.
The Stillwater Township Committee adopted a resolution declaring Stillwater a Second Amendment / Lawful Gun Owner Township" on Tuesday night, but not everyone in the room was cheering.
Some in the audience of more than 60 spoke in opposition to the resolution, which does not supersede any state or federal laws, before it was approved in a 3-1 vote.
It resembled resolutions passed in at least seven other New Jersey municipalities since December.
Stillwater Mayor Lisa Chammings cast the lone dissenting vote, stating that while she supports the Second Amendment she was not comfortable with the part of the resolution claiming that red flag laws - statutes that allow for removing weapons from someone judged a threat to themselves or others - had been "misapplied and misused and run afoul of the U.S. Constitution.
I know the amount of domestic violence this township went through, Chammings, whose late father was Stillwaters last police chief, told the audience from the dais.
She also alluded to the suicide of a police officer.
The governing body in Stillwater, located in Sussex County, undertook the resolution at the behest of Assemblyman Parker Space, R-24th District, who voted against New Jerseys 4-month-old red flag law. The four committee members who voted Tuesday are Republicans.
Space spoke several times during Tuesdays meeting. He outlined a hypothetical confrontation involving Stillwater committee member Vera Rumsey in asserting that New Jerseys red flag law could facilitate a false allegation against him.
With red flag laws, we can sit down and have coffee - Vera and I, or Committeewoman Rumsey, and we could be talking about different things and she could feel - maybe, He was talking about Donald Trump and I dont like him, and I felt kind of threatened by what he had to say, and then she could, in return, report me, and then pretty soon theyre coming to my door, taking my firearms away, Space said.
Space, though, was describing a different process than exists under New Jerseys red flag law, formally known as the Extreme Risk Protective Order Act of 2018.
It allows for a judge in response to a request from family or household members, or law enforcement to order the removal of guns and ammunition from someone who poses a significant danger of bodily injury to self or others, as described in the statute.
The legislation received crossover support from many Republicans, passing the Senate by 32-5 and Assembly by 59-12. At least 17 other states have similar laws, including Florida, where Space at one point acknowledged owning property.
Some in the audience who spoke in support of the resolution, though, appeared to pick up on the idea that the red flag law, and others, are simply a pretense for seizing weapons. There was applause when one speaker drew a parallel to gun restrictions under the Nazis in Germany.
Kathleen Marshall, who spoke in opposition to the resolution, expressed dismay at the outcome.
Im heartbroken, Marshall, a Stillwater resident since 1992, told NJ Advance Media.
I love my town. I think theres a lot of misinformation and ignorance about what the actual laws are. They go right to, theyre taking our guns away, and thats not what this is about, Marshall said.
Kathleen Marshall, a Stillwater resident who addressed the township committee in opposition to the resolution, remains at the meeting following the vote, Jan. 21, 2020Rob Jennings / NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
After Donna Price, a Stillwater resident, spoke in opposition to the resolution and disagreed with Spaces characterization of red flag laws, a man in the audience asked her if she felt threatened by him.
I do, Price said.
In response, the man responded, perhaps facetiously, that Space might get in trouble as a result.
You just got red-flagged, the man said.
Tuesdays meeting, while at times tense, remained civil. Every seat in the room, which has a maximum capacity of 55, was taken, and there appeared to be up to two dozen others standing along the side and back walls and just outside the door.
Kaitlyn Hammerle, a Stillwater resident, spoke in support of the resolution.
All it is saying is that Stillwater respects and supports the lawfully abiding gun ownership of all the residents. It avoids using the word sanctuary, which could be misconstrued as allowing illegal firearms," Hammerle said in a reference to a version of the resolution adopted in West Milford and, last week, by the Cape May County freeholder board.
Mike Vrabel of Sparta spoke in opposition. He said the current laws do not violate the rights of law-abiding gun owners and refuted assertions from Second Amendment advocates that increasing access to guns would save lives.
Vrabel, a U.S. Air Force veteran, alluded to a friendly-fire incident in 1989 in Panama, that he witnessed, that claimed the life of a 19-year-old Army Ranger.
As far as the good guy with a gun theory, I understand the emotional appeal of that, said Vrabel, a member of the Sussex County chapter of Brady formerly the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Ask yourself, if an incident happens, and you are armed, and you have your concealed carry permit which I know is almost impossible in New Jersey are you up to the task, because even an Army Ranger can falter, Vrabel said.
As he concluded, someone from the audience shouted, How many people were saved in Texas - a reference to a gunman at a Texas church who was fatally shot by another church member Dec. 29, but not before the gunman killed two people inside the building.
Votes in additional places seem likely. Space has asked municipalities in Sussex and Warren counties, along with both freeholder boards, to consider pro-Second Amendment resolutions.
Two Sussex County freeholders, board director Sylvia Petillo and Herb Yardley, attended Tuesdays meeting but did not address the Stillwater committee.
Assemblyman Parker Space, R-24th District, in hat, with Sussex County Freeholder Herbert Yardley at the township committee meeting in Stillwater, Jan. 21, 2020Rob Jennings / NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
In contrast with the mayor, George Scott, the townships deputy mayor, offered unambiguous support for the totality of the resolution.
Im concerned that theyre going to come in and take my guns, Scott said.
Chammings, while stating her support for the Second Amendment, said she could not back the resolution without hearings specific problems regarding red flag laws.
I dont know how its being misused or misapplied, she told NJ Advance Media following the vote, in quoting back the part of the resolution that gave her pause.
Stillwater is home to about 3,900.
Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@RobJenningsNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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Were afraid theyll take our guns, N.J.'s newest 2nd Amendment town says - NJ.com