Interview with Scott Bach, Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs

By Devorah

Threat To New Jersey Gun Owners Medical Privacy with new bill, S-568.

The Democrats have been passing legislation at lightning speed in New Jersey, with limited public interaction (which appears to be intentional). Each legislative bill proposed has been stripping away fundamental rights: God-given, Constitutional, civil rights.

In my interview with Mr. Scott Bach, Executive Director, ANJRPC, I asked several questions relating to the current and pressing concern over the bill S-568, which is set to, yet again, violate the medical rights and privacy of gun owners.

The Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs is a statewide organization representing the rights of all New Jersey gun owners. Mr. Bach full legislative alert is posted below following the interview. People interested in reaching Mr. Bach can email him at: defendfreedom@earthlink.net. Here is his response.

What has made it difficult in educating the public that their civil rights are Constitutional and legal; and yet are treated as if the opposite?

"People are being tricked into giving up their rights by those trying to implement a global socialist agenda in which people are subject to the will of the state instead of the other way around. Especially in liberal New Jersey, many folks have swallowed the lie. Our job is to shine light on the subject and wake up as many people as possible to resist that agenda."

Tell us a bit on how you became involved in creating this alert?

"We send out many legislative alerts to gun owners on bills that are actually moving, and this was one of them. The implications of this bill for medical privacy and restoring gun rights to those who have genuinely recovered were far-reaching. It was basically an attempt to nullify what expungement actually means (a fresh start) and create a permanent stigma that can be used to block gun ownership for the rest of someone's life, regardless of their recovery."

Do you feel there is a bias on gun owners? And why?

"The bias against gun owners is blatant, systemic, and far-reaching. To some in government and the courts, the Constitution can simply be ignored when it comes to the rights of gun owners, and a different set of rules applies. Respect for the Second Amendment in New Jersey is gone among bureaucrats."

What is the most pressing thing you would want the public to be informed about for protecting the Second Amendment?

"People must ask themselves why government works so hard to extinguish gun rights. The phony claim that law-abiding citizens are made safer by more gun laws (which criminals ignore) is cover for a deeper agenda, which is to remove citizens' ability to defend themselves and their country against those trying to undermine it."

S-568 is legislation that would inject law enforcement into the process of evaluating whether someone has recovered from mental health issues and should be given an expungement so they can receive NJ firearms credentials. The bill would violate medical privacy laws by disclosing protected information to law enforcement, and jeopardizes millions of dollars in federal grant monies that NJ might be forced to return for blatantly violating such laws.

Medical privacy laws of gun owners must be respected, and personal opinions of non-medical personnel about someone's fitness to own firearms are irrelevant and should not be considered. Records should be expunged based on the opinions of medical professionals only, and the fact that an expungement has been given may not be used as a basis to deny a subsequent application for firearms credential (a longstanding issue that defeats the very purpose of expungements -- to clear someone's record after they have recovered and remove any lingering stigma).

Please tell members of the Senate to either fix or oppose S568. Potential amendments could include (1) excluding law enforcement opinion and speculation from the process, solely limiting law enforcement input to records of pre-existing written incident reports; (2) limiting requests issued to law enforcement so they do not expose that the purpose of the request is connected to medical issues or an expungement related to potential firearms ownership; and (3) clarifying that expungements and expunged records cannot be used as a basis for denial of any firearms permit or license.

“People must ask themselves why government works so hard to extinguish gun rights.”

Scott L. Bach, Esq.