Court won't hear challenge to gun law

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Court won't hear challenge to gun law WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge Monday of New Jersey's decade-old law that forbids the possession, sale, or transport of assault-style weapons.A group led by the Coalition of New Jersey Sportsmen argued that the law is unconstitutional because it is vague in describing the guns to be banned, focuses on brand names displayed on guns, and forces people to join a target shooting club to qualify for an exemption.A New Jersey federal court and the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the state's favor, and the sportsmen's group appealed. The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up the case."I'm disappointed," said Robert Viden, formerly vice chairman of the coalition and one of the plaintiffs in the case. "Something needs to be done with this the way the law is written. A lot of people can get into trouble unintentionally."But Bryan Miller, chairman of Ceasefire New Jersey, which promotes gun laws, said the high court refused to take up the appeal because it had no merit."This is an expected, but very positive victory for the safety of our communities in New Jersey," Miller said. "We know that the prime goal of the pro-gun lobby is to overturn the assault weapons ban. They almost succeeded in the early 1990s, and they are still at it. But the issue is dead."New Jersey was the second state to enact a ban on assault weapons, following California by one year.California's law has been challenged five times over how it defines outlawed weapons. The state Legislature sought to address the issue in 1999 by adopting a provision that bans weapons based on a list of features, rather than a list of makes and models.Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, and Massachusetts have also passed bans. Congress passed a federal ban on numerous assault-style weapons in 1994.New Jersey's law listed 37 models by name but also covered others that are "substantially identical" to any on the list. The intent was to keep gun makers from making tiny adjustments to banned weapons as a means to circumvent the law.Shortly after the group filed its lawsuit in 1996, Peter Verniero, then New Jersey's attorney general, issued guidelines to help county prosecutors define the "substantially identical" provision.Gary Needleman, a Montville attorney who represents the plaintiffs, said even those guidelines did not clarify just which guns are covered."You have people prosecuted under a law that defies comprehension," he said.To bolster their challenge, the plaintiffs pointed to a 1994 ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That appeals court struck down a weapons ban in Columbus, Ohio, as unconstitutionally vague because it covered not just specific weapons but those with "slight modifications."New Jersey Attorney General John Farmer, in his brief to the Supreme Court, said the 1994 ruling should have no effect on New Jersey's law."Of course courts will necessarily differ in interpreting the many laws the many states and municipalities adopt in regulating firearms," Farmer wrote.Gov. Jim Florio, a Democrat, signed New Jersey's ban into law on March 17, 1990. Gun owners were given a one-year grace period to dispose of affected firearms.Some state legislators tried unsuccessfully to overturn the ban in 1992 and 1993.Opponents of the law put their hopes behind the candidacy of Republican Christie Whitman, who ousted Florio in 1993. During the campaign she called the weapons ban "a lousy law."But in seven years as governor, Whitman never made an effort to overturn it. Nor did Donald T. DiFrancesco, who became acting governor early this year when Whitman became Environmental Protection Agency administrator.Florio said the Supreme Court's decision not to take up the case is a vote for common sense."I don't know anybody except the zealots who think it is not a reasonable restriction," Florio said. "The best evidence is that nobody in the Legislature is offereing any kind of legislation to make any changes."Statistics kept by the New Jersey State Police show a gradual reduction in the number of criminal offenses involving semiautomatic weapons, from 110 in 1991 to 70 in 1999.The gun groups filed their lawsuit in 1996. In addition to the Coalition of New Jersey Sportsmen, the plaintiffs include Illinois-based gun manufacturers Springfield Inc. and Armalite Inc. http://www.bergen.com/morenews/gunban2720011127.htm