Little seems to be known about it at this point, but three are dead, including the shooter.
Three people died early this morning, including an alleged gunman who apparently killed himself, after a shooting inside a New Jersey shopping plaza.
Police in New Jersey responded to shots inside a Pathmark supermarket on Route 9 in Old Bridge, N.J., at 4 a.m.
“This is the worst phone call a mayor can receive,” Mayor Owen Henry told NewJersey.com of the information he obtained about 6:30 a.m. “You can prepare for these things but you can’t prevent them.”
The suspect has been identified as a man in his 20s who was a current or former employee, WABC-TV reported. There’s no word on his motive.
Authorities believe the man killed two before turning the gun on himself, according to WABC.
Several employees were inside the store, which was preparing to open at 6 a.m. Two windows near the entrance to the Pathmark were shot out.
Numerous employees were taken across the street to a T.G.I. Friday’s and many are being treated for trauma at waiting ambulances.
The scene is now under control, according to WABC, and there are emergency responders in the plaza parking lot who have been standing in front of the store for the past hour.
Expect the wailing over guns laws to continue, maybe even crescendo, as a result of this shooting. But take note that no one in this instance could have legally defended himself. New Jersey is a “may issue” state. State Senator Jeff Van Drew has tried to change that, apparently without success.
Current state law only gives carry permits to those who demonstrate a “justifiable need” to their local police chief and then a Superior Court judge — a nearly impossible hurdle, Van Drew says.
“You have to fear for your life, that you’re going to be killed, in essence,” said Van Drew. “It’s virtually never done.”
Van Drew owns two handguns — but he can’t carry them around.
New Jersey residents may purchase handguns through a permit process that involves being fingerprinted by local police and undergoing a background check. A permit must be obtained for each handgun purchased, and the buyer must go through a background check each time he or she wants to buy another pistol.
The state also has strict regulations guiding how handgun owners may transport their pistols outside their homes, requiring the pistol to be placed, unloaded, in a fastened case and carried in the trunk of a vehicle. If the vehicle has no trunk or separate compartment, the unloaded handgun must be kept in a locked box out of reach of passengers.
Those rules also apply to the handgun owners who hold special “carry permits” unless otherwise specified in the permit that allows them to have their handgun on their person. Each “carry permit” is tailored to the person holding it, setting the specific hours in a day, days in a week and the exact locations and circumstances in which a handgun owner may carry his or her gun.
Also apparently, bills to make New Jersey a shall-issue state have come up before, and they never go anywhere. Note to the progressives. New Jersey has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation. More laws wouldn’t have stopped this crime. Someone engaged in concealed carry, on the other hand, might have had a decent chance.
