By Briana Vannozzi
Correspondent
Last November, actor and stand up comic Carlo Bellario got a role he wasn’t anticipating — defendant in a gun possession case. Bellario was playing a gangster in an independent film being shot in Woodbridge.
“The gun they gave me, which I thought was a prop, turned out to be a pellet gun. When we shot the scene it was a car chasing scene so we were driving around the neighborhood. Apparently residents saw this and panicked and called the cops, and rightfully so. They arrested me for possession of a weapon,” he said.
Because that gun wasn’t registered with a permit in New Jersey, Bellario could face a minimum three-year prison sentence. It’s just one example of many throughout the state of people being swept into the court system due to New Jersey’s tough gun laws.
“I just want to send a message, at least as one legislator and Republican leader, that we want prosecutors to have the discretion when they see it’s a good guy who made a mistake versus a bad guy with a gun,” said Assemblyman Jon Bramnick.
Republican lawmakers Bramnick and Declan O’Scanlon are working to draft new legislation. It piggybacks off an old bill by fellow Republican Ron Dancer, giving prosecutors discretion — through statute rather than directives from the attorney general’s office — to reduce the level of the crime and not impose mandatory jail time.
“Right now if you do reduce a gun charge, you must notify the attorney general’s office. I don’t even have a problem if it becomes subject to an attorney general’s review. As long as the Legislature gives clear guidelines,” Bramnick said.
“In the clamor for one lawmaker after another to put their name on some new gun legislation, we have made the laws labrynthian and so easy to break,” O’Scanlon said.
Last year a commission appointed by Gov. Christie to examine New Jersey’s gun ownership and possession laws called for loosening the guidelines. The governor pardoned three people from out of state for gun possession charges because New Jersey doesn’t recognize their permits. But it seems the bill would have an uphill battle in the Democrat-controlled Legislature.
Reached by email today, Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto had a short and sweet response when asked if he’d consider the bill.
“I’ll keep this simple: I will not post any bills to weaken gun safety in New Jersey,” he said.
“It isn’t about weakening gun laws that are protecting people. It’s about getting rid of stupid laws that are destroying perfectly innocent reasonably behaving people,” O’Scanlon said.
As for Bellario, he’s set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for his legal expenses and fight a prison sentence.