“The fight has officially been brought to my front door,” New Jersey gun owner Shawn T. Moore announced to Delaware Open Carry forum members on Sunday. “I stood my ground.”
On Saturday night, his wife texted him while he was out with a friend. The Department of Youth and Family Services (actually renamed last year to the Division of Child Protection and Permanency) had showed up at his house with police demanding to check out his guns and wanting his safe to be opened.
Moore called attorney Evan Nappen (a central figure in numerous Gun Rights Examiner reports over the years), walked into his house, handed his phone to the police and directed them to go outside.
“DYFS got a call because of a picture of my son holding a gun,” Moore related. “They wanted to look around and check all my guns out, make sure they were all registered. Obviously that didn't go well because I refused. I had Nappen on speaker phone the entire time so they had to deal with both of us.
“They kept trying to pressure me to open my safe,” he continued. “They had no warrant, no charges, nothing. I didn't budge.”
Authorities accused Moore of acting suspiciously and threatened to get a search warrant, which he told them to go ahead and do. Attorney Nappen asked him to get the DYFS worker’s name, which Moore says she refused to provide, and says she also refused to show her credentials.
“I tried to take a picture of her and she turned around real fast and walked away,” Moore recalled. “After a while of them threatening to take my kids, get warrants and intimidation they left, empty-handed and seeing nothing.”
“My client is also an NRA certified firearms instructor, an NRA certified range safety officer and a New Jersey Hunter education instructor,” Nappen told Gun Rights Examiner yesterday evening when asked for more details.
"New Jersey licenses kids to hunt with a shotgun at 10 years old,” Nappen revealed. “A minor son possessing a gun under the supervision of his dad is per se legal. This overreaction by government shows how schizophrenic the state is.
“I just confirmed that his 11-year-old son in the picture does have a New Jersey firearm hunting license, that he passed the New Jersey firearm hunter safety course and that he was passed by an instructor who was not his dad,” Nappen added in correspondence this morning.
Fear and loathing, especially as it relates to young people and firearms, has been the subject of frequent explorations in this column. A recent article highlighted a hypocritical disconnect, where it was pointed out how gun imagery is encouraged by officials when the message is anti-gun, but similar imagery with a pro-gun message can result in suspension from school. It is telling that self-styled “progressive” educators and agents of the state demand nothing short of ignorance and tout total avoidance as “gun safety,” while a young person who is educated, trained, confident and supervised is portrayed as being at risk.
That’s why this particular young person is fortunate to have parents who care about his safety and happiness enough to give him age-appropriate training, and importantly, age-appropriate trust. And he’s especially fortunate to be raised in a home where the parents understand and will not surrender their rights in the face of intimidating authorities demanding otherwise.
“People it can happen that fast,” Moore told the forum participants. “Most people wouldn't have stood up to them like I did.”
Indeed. And until more of us do, the bureaucrats and enforcers will continue to act like our function is to serve them.
Gun Rights Examiner will maintain contact with attorney Nappen on this story and will relay updates as further developments become known.
UPDATE: Fox News is reporting no charges will be filed. Considering what the hive insects put this family through, and what would have happened had the father not understood his rights and had an excellent attorney on speed dial, why the hell not?
------------
If you're a regular Gun Rights Examiner reader and believe it provides news and perspectives you won't find in the mainstream media, please subscribe to this column and help spread the word by sharing links, promoting it on social media like Facebook (David Codrea) and Twitter (@dcodrea), and telling your like-minded friends about it. And for more commentary, be sure to visit "The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance."
Comments