Strict New Jersey guns laws and a lengthy firearms application process left Carol Browne, 39, alone and unarmed on the day her violent ex fatally stabbed her.
Browne knew her ex was coming for her and prepared for the encounter the best she could. She filed a restraining order against him, installed security cameras around her New Jersey home, and even applied for a gun permit – the only way to guarantee she had the power to protect herself.
Browne filed for her firearms permit on April 21, and local police are supposed to make their decision within 30 days. Nearly a month and a half later, however, the paperwork had still not been processed.
“She should have been granted that permit in a timely manner, especially given her status as a domestic violence victim,” said Evan Nappen, a New Jersey-based attorney who specializes in Second Amendment cases.
State Senator Dawn Addiego, a Republican whose district is in southern New Jersey, used Browne’s tragic death to illustrate the dire need for change.
“The tragic murder of Carol Browne shows that there are sensible changes we should make to public safety laws to help people protect themselves,” said Addiego. “This legislation will make sure that those who need to protection the most are given priority when it comes to the lengthy process of applying for a firearms permit.”
“Carol would have qualified for a permit since she was attacked; only now it’s too late,” said Nappen.
Browne’s attacker, Michael Eitel, 45, hung himself shortly after the murder.
(The following was a submission by freelance writer Brent McCluskey)
I thought WTF, I know plenty of people in NJ who have firearms, then I saw how old this story is.
My job required me to a fingerprint check when I started 11yrs ago. I went to a digital service in Cherry Hill NJ, that took my prints on a scanner, sent them out digitally to everybody and cleared me in a week. Why does law enforcement insist on doing it on paper through snail mail?
Had he shot her President Obama would have spoken out that too many times this kind of thing happens because firearms are too easy to get.
Well El Presidente Jack Wagon, this woman was STABBED to death with a KNIFE because the types of laws that get your loins wet are in place and make it difficult to get a firearm!!
Hope you are proud of yourself.
It’s hard to believe that people consider Chris Christy a viable “conservative” presidential candidate while he presides over a state with these kinds of draconian laws.
Never register, never surrender.
Wolfpack-bravo out.
“Its better to have a gun and not need it, than to need it and not have it.” That is a lesson I learned in 1985 the hard way. Unfortunately Ms. Brown found out too late the consequences of ignorant state laws. The real problem though is that she is now a statistic and in a month she will be forgotten by everyone except her family. They will now have to deal with this crime while the politicians will do nothing except celebrate their ability to afford the best protection devices and they couldn’t care less about the average citizen killed by a criminal. Our world is in a sorry state and I hope every citizen that values our constitutional freedoms will get out and vote against the liberal politicians that want to rob us all of those freedoms. We DO NOT want America to become a country like many African nations that cannot protect themselves from gangs and organizations that seek to conquer or kill. “Ethnic cleansing” is very real and could hit America in the future if our 2nd amendment rights are ground into the dirt and become non-existent.
“A right delayed is a right denied” Martin Luther King Jr.
appears her family has grounds for a law suit against the state of New Jersey…
Will you see this on mainstream news? No! It’s so frustrating!
A prime example of what can happen when your 2nd Amendment rights are restricted or repealed.
Cali and New Jersey, the most communist gun states in the US……its a shame.
And New York, as well.
and connecticut…