[VIDEO] Flintlock Pistol That May Not Have Been Fired Since George Washington Was Alive Has Retired Teacher Facing PRISON

19 Feb, 2015 by McGuire

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Hey, New Jersey Police Department, how about a bit of discretion when implementing laws regarding your citizens? This should be filed under ‘R’ for ridiculousness:

A New Jersey man has spoken out about a traffic stop which led to his arrest the next day, because deputies discovered his car contained an unloaded antique gun.

In November 2014 Gordon Van Gilder was pulled over and stopped for a ‘minor traffic violation’ and a sheriff’s deputy asked to do a search.

Van Gilder, 72, said that he agreed to have the car searched, and when asked by a deputy if there was anything dangerous in the car, told him the glove compartment contained a flintlock pistol.

‘The reason I got the firearm was it goes with my collection of 18th-century objects,’ he explained to NRA News.

He said in the interview ‘One of the undersheriffs said, ‘Well, let him go, it’s 250 years old.’ But his boss, who is the sheriff, said, ‘No, we have to arrest him.’

‘Next morning, I am sleeping and I hear big pounding on the door, and four of them came and took me away with three or four sheriff’s cars – I guess they didn’t have anything better to do with taxpayers’ money, by the way.’

Evan Nappen, who is representing van Gilder, told NRA News ‘It’s a mid-1700s flintlock, bona fide antique pistol, unloaded, and yet he’s facing the same draconian penalty as if he had a .44 Magnum loaded on his person. It doesn’t matter. There’s no distinction.’

Nappen said of his client ‘he’s facing up to ten years in state’s prison with a minimum mandatory three-and-a-half to five years, no chance of parole, because New Jersey’s modern handgun law includes antique handguns.’

‘I’m charged as a felon,’ Van Gilder, who spent over three decades as a teacher, told NRA News. ‘That could ruin my life. That could hurt my pension that I spent 34 years acquiring. I couldn’t vote now, and it’s not right, it’s not fair.’

Van Gilder said in the interview ‘Maybe technically I did violate New Jersey law,’ adding, ‘but as a very wise man said once upon a time, ‘If that’s the law, then the law is an a**.”

WOW. Seriously, WOW. A retired Teacher that collects antiques. Watch out officer, we have a serious criminal over here! I have a feeling that Mr. Van Gilder may have been looking forward to retirement, but I don’t think that this was the kind of excitement he had in mind.

Written by Katie McGuire. Follow Katie on Twitter @GOPKatie