JavaScript is disabled
Our website requires JavaScript to function properly. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser settings before proceeding.
Messages
474
Reactions
160
The same judge and prosecutor who let professional football star Ray Rice avoid a trial after beating his wife unconscious are pushing forward with the prosecution of Shaneen Allen, a single mother who carried a gun into New Jersey without realizing her Pennsylvania permit didn't apply there.

Allen, a mother of two from Philadelphia, was driving in New Jersey last fall when she was pulled over by a police officer. She informed the officer she had a handgun in her purse and a Pennsylvania license-to-carry permit, at which point the officer arrested her and charged her with a felony for unlawful possession of a weapon, because New Jersey does not recognize out-of-state gun permits.

Allen tried to avoid a trial and jail time by applying to a pre-trial intervention programin New Jersey for first-time offenders. Ray Rice, the Baltimore Ravens running back who knocked his then-fiancee unconscious during an altercation in Atlantic City in February, was accepted into the program in May.

But Superior Court Judge Michael Donio and New Jersey District Attorney Jim McClain, the same judge and prosecutor who allowed Rice to avoid prosecution, denied Allen's application to the program on Wednesday.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

Allen, 27, cried for a moment in the hallway with her son Naiare and his father after a judge denied her motion to dismiss weapons charges filed against her in October and refused to overturn a prosecutor's decision to deny her entry into a first-time-offender diversion program.

So Allen walked back into court, turned down a plea deal that would have given her a 3 1/2-year sentence and decided to go to trial in October, hoping a jury would use some common sense and not send a working mother of two to prison for not knowing New Jersey's gun laws.



Allen has no criminal record, and she claims she bought the gun for self-defense after being robbed. Her trial is scheduled for October.

^My comment on this, it just goes to show that you're often better off legal wise to have committed a crime with actual victims and violence towards people, than commit a victimless non-violent crime.

This really goes to show that there is a huge double standard in this country for haves and have nots. Judge and Prosecutor let the millionaire star NFL player off the hook, but throw the book at the woman for ignorance of New Jersey gun laws. Her plea deal was 3.5 years in prison, the NFL player got no where near that kind of penalty for beating his girlfriend so bad to the point that she was unconscious.

Edit: Another comment I'd like to make about the NFL player. The NFL thought they would "send a message" to Ray Rice by suspending him for 2 games, for beating his girl friend up so bad. If he had been caught smoking marijuana, the suspension would be no less than FOUR games. So is the NFL conveying the message that you're better off hitting your wife, than hitting a bong? Because that's the message I got from their penalty.
 
Completely unrelated
As a gun owner she should know the rights of the state she was entering.
No excuse
The judge is obviously an asshat but the 2 just don't have anything to do with each other
 
3.5 years in prison seems a tad ridiculous. There are probably rapists who get off with less time than that, and that's a plea deal.
 
Bernard Goetz served 8 months in prison for defending himself from muggers, also a firearms related offense, but didn't serve anywhere near 3.5 years.
 
Completely unrelated
As a gun owner she should know the rights of the state she was entering.
No excuse
The judge is obviously an asshat but the 2 just don't have anything to do with each other


How are they not related? One was a real time crime, the other was a victimless crime that gets more punishment.

Was she is the wrong, YES. But does that deserve jail time, any time at all??
 
How are they not related? One was a real time crime, the other was a victimless crime that gets more punishment.

Was she is the wrong, YES. But does that deserve jail time, any time at all??

We should never ask to be judged against a wife beater
We,as gun owners, should always hold ourselves to a higher standard.WE should know the laws so WE can keep our gun rights
 
Completely unrelated
As a gun owner she should know the rights of the state she was entering.
No excuse
<snip>
Should have kept her mouth shut when the police pulled her over.

Blaming the victim is unhelpful.

Did her instructor emphasize that she should never take her gun into a third-world police state? Probably not.

Did her instructor teach her to always tell the cops that she has a gun in the car? Very likely, it's practically gospel.

NJ has no gun "rights", only privileges at the whim of the government.
 
WHAT? You should never offer any information to the cops about yourself.

I have seen the following advice, or some rendition, innumerable times on various forums, especially in the context of concealed carry:

"If you are stopped by a cop, stay in your car, place your hands on the steering wheel, and tell the cop: 'I have a gun [in the glove box/in the console/under the seat/etc.]'"
 
Congrats to Northwest Firearms for disussing this case:

Will there be justice for Shaneen Allen in New Jersey?

Shaneen Allen is the Philadelphia woman who now faces felony gun charges in New Jersey – her story has spread across various internet gun blogs for the past couple of weeks – and yesterday, law professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds unloaded on the judge and prosecutor in her case in an Op-Ed published by USA Today.


<broken link removed>
 
Completely unrelated
As a gun owner she should know the rights of the state she was entering.
No excuse
The judge is obviously an asshat but the 2 just don't have anything to do with each other

Yes she should have known the rights (or lack thereof) of the state she was entering but that does not change the fact that the legal consequences she is currently facing are out of all proportion to the "offense" that she committed.

It also does not change the underlying hypocrisy of granting pre-trial intervention to an NFL player who beat his girlfriend into unconsciousness while denying the same opportunity to an otherwise law-abiding person who was guilty of nothing other than simple ignorance while driving her car across a state line.
 
WHAT? You should never offer any information to the cops about yourself.
If you were a black person getting pulled over by a white cop and you had (what you thought was) a legally owned and carried gun in your purse, glove box or waistband....you would probably feel differently.

She had to reach into her purse to get her ID, and she was trying to be cooperative and law-abiding and warn the officer about the gun that was in there in order to avoid getting blown away. I cant say as I blame her.
 
She could be any one of us.

Law abiding. Gainfully employed. Licensed to carry. Guilty of nothing more than driving across a state line.

There is some delicious irony here in the fact that the liberal media have been so reluctant to report on this case even though (A) she is an African American woman and (B) the judge and prosecutor who want t0 throw the book at her for having the gun are the same ones who granted NFL star Ray Rice probation for beating his wife unconscious in an elevator. Normally, when a news story involves buzz words like wife beating, domestic violence and disparate sentences for African American women the liberal media would be all over it like flies on a fresh turd. In this case though, the narrative doesn't fit the liberal anti-gun agenda so they remain silent.

This case is also important because gun ownership and 2nd Amendment rights cannot continue to be perceived by the media as being the sole province of angry old white men. We need women, we need young people, we need black people and gay people and other minorities to join us.
 
This is a strong case for jury nulification. Should bring some publicity if she can get the media to pay attention. I wonder if Al or Jesse will have anything to say about it??? Not holding my breath for that.
 
Well I have to agree with Sheldon. And let's hope for Jury Nullification.
Yes she should know the laws but come on 3.5yrs but a child molester gets less than 6 months here in wa true story happend to my ex step daughter. Just absurd!!!!!
 

Upcoming Events

Tillamook Gun & Knife Show
Tillamook, OR
"The Original" Kalispell Gun Show
Kalispell, MT
Kids Firearm Safety 2 Class
Springfield, OR
Teen Rifle 1 Class
Springfield, OR

New Resource Reviews

New Classified Ads

Back Top