By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
Shooters on the firing line at the Bullet Hole range in Belleville all own their guns. No rentals allowed even though New Jersey law lets authorized shooting ranges rent firearms to any 18-year-old with a photo ID — no gun license required — for up to eight hours a day. That alarms Bullet Hole owner Manny Cerca.
“There shouldn’t be rentals to just anyone walking off the street because there’s no control over the individual that comes in there to rent a gun,” he said.
Cerca wants you to know he’s staunchly pro-gun. But he opposes gun rentals, in part, because of suicides. One occurred this week at Gun For Hire — a different shooting range in Woodland Park — where police say a man rented a firearm, then shot himself to death. The owner had no comment. But one published report recently counted seven firearm suicides at three New Jersey shooting ranges that rent guns.
“We don’t have this issue because for 35 years we’ve never rented a gun. And people have told me repeatedly, ‘I come here for that one reason,'” Cerca said.
“Simply denying the access to a firearm is not going to really resolve the problem of suicides. Where as there’s a positive societal benefit from the rental of firearms that far outweighs the suicides,” said Evan Nappen.
Firearms legal expert Nappen calls suicide a mental health problem, not a gun problem. He says rentals let people experiment safely.
“Find out first of all do they even want to own a firearm, which firearm is correct for them, and they can get the training that they need before purchasing a firearm,” Nappen said.
But for Cerca and his customers at the Bullet Hole, gun rentals raise even bigger red flags about security.
“You could have came out of Rahway State Penitentiary the day before, and walked in the place with a driver’s license and a passport and rented a gun. A criminal, renting a gun, with no background checks, no nothing,” Cerca said.
“For me, I think it is not safe. Why? Because anybody can get in. And even though you don’t have license, you can get it. That’s not good. It should be strict,” said Lito Razon.
But New Jersey’s Second Amendment Society says banning rentals is not the answer.
“Just last night a man took a large truck and killed over 80 people in France. Should we then start talking about having a ban on large trucks?” asked Second Amendment Society President Alexander Roubian.
Cerca says he’d like to see a three-day waiting period with background checks for rentals. Call it a cooling off period.