Knife Rights was shocked and saddened that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie bought into the irrational emotional pleas and outright lies of the radical ivory banners and signed into law the nation's most draconian ivory ban, ignoring New Jersey's constitutionally protected personal property rights. This ban will cost New Jersey citizens millions of dollars, seriously hamper many from making a living, adversely affect everyone from gun and knife collectors to musicians and antique collectors and will not save a single elephant in Africa. Many veterans and elderly who have invested in perfectly legal items containing ivory that have been in this country for decades will lose their investments. Some will sell at fire sale prices during the six-month grace period, but most will never even hear about the ban until down the road when they try to sell to cover medical expenses or some other emergency.
The New Jersey law bans "import, sale, purchase, barter, or possession with intent to sell" ivory from any species, including fossil ivory from mastodons and mammoths extinct for 10,000 years, and has no exceptions whatsoever. It will go into effect in six months, during which time anyone who owns antiques, musical instruments, guns, knives, canes, chess sets, art or anything else that contains even the smallest amount of ivory can liquidate it. And, we expect that "liquidate" will be the operative word, for those few who actually are paying attention. Once the law goes into effect, no one can buy, sell or trade ivory in New Jersey or "possess with the intent to sell," an extremely vague phrase subject to abuse by authorities. Penalties include a fine of $1000 or double the value of the ivory for a first offense, and $5000 or double the value of the ivory for subsequent offenses. Which begs the question, if it's illegal to sell, does it actually have any value?
Governor Christie, who has been touted as a potential Republican presidential candidate, should have stuck with those who really have the best interests of the elephants at heart and vetoed this absurd draconian ban and instead supported proven effective science and enforcement based approaches to eliminating poaching in Africa. In signing this bill, he's demonstrated that he's more interested in securing support from the radical extremists on the other side of the aisle than in preserving his constituents' property rights.
Read Knife Rights' original letter to Governor Christie here:
www.KnifeRights.org/Gov_Christie_NJ_Ivory_Ban_06192014_Final.pdf
If anyone is inclined to let the Governor know how they feel about this travesty, his contacts are below.
Email Governor Christie at:
Constituent.Relations@gov.state.nj.us
Call the Governor at: 609-292-6000
Knife Rights continues to fight the Federal Ivory Ban. Read more about that fight here: http://www.kniferights.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=256
