People’s Republic of New Jersey

This sucks.  It just does.  This lady did what she was supposed to do and got herself some training, but then apparently made a costly mistake and now faces serious charges and jail time.  Basically she’s a PA permit holder, but she got busted carrying in New Jersey.  Here’s the link:

Honest Gun-Owning Mom Busted in NJ Could Get Three Years in Prison” By Bill Anderson, My9NJ.com (July 11, 2014)

Now, I realize it was 100% her responsibility to educate herself on the limits of her CCW, and she failed to do that.  However, she also took a CCW class from somebody.  And either she wasn’t paying attention in class, or her instructor didn’t say anything about the perils of crossing state lines.  Either way, to all my fellow CCW/HCP instructors out there, we have to take pride in the service we provide.  Give students complete and thorough information, including laws on reciprocity and interaction with law enforcement.  I have heard some horror stories about CCW training providers in Mississippi who take their students out back for some tin-can-popping and war-story-swapping and then hand them a concealed carry certificate.  Not cool.  At all.  If we’re going call ourselves trainers, and we’re going to accept people’s money and lull them into trusting that we will properly educate them, then we have to do exactly that.

That being said, this photo doesn’t exactly help her cause.  I’ve already mentioned my misgivings about those “hey look at me and my gun” photos.  The pic also gives me a few more clues about how (in)effective her training might have been (and again, that could be due to poor teaching, poor learning, or any number of other reasons). Shaneen_Allen