ATLANTA — Following his remarks at the Red State Gathering Friday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican presidential candidate, was confronted by Second Amendment activists demanding to know why he has not thrown out the charges against a North Carolina man who was found with a firearm by New Jersey police.
Christie was hurried off stage when he decided against talking to reporters en masse that is covering the Red State event and spent most of his remaining time there hiding from the media.
During his speech to attendees, activists from the organization known as Georgia Gun Owners passed out a flyer describing Christie as being anti-gun to the press and attendees.
Patrick Parsons of Georgia Gun Owners, along with another individual, attempted to ask Christie about North Carolina man Brian Fletcher, a man who is facing five to ten years in a New Jersey prison for bringing an unlicensed pistol into the state.
“We handed out flyers showing basically 20 years of Christie’s anti-gun history and then as he just ran from us. There is a gun owner from North Carolina named Brian Fletcher. Brian Fletcher works on power lines. He was called up to New Jersey in the middle of the night to work on a disaster,” Parsons told The Daily Caller after he said that organizers threw him out of the hotel.
He explained, “[Fletcher] had his firearm on him. He was pulled over by cops in his work vehicle. He said he had a firearm. They arrested him. He’s facing 5 to 10 years in the state pen in New Jersey. Christie is getting a lot of heat on this issue in New Hampshire Iowa Georgia all over the country and he can get the chargers thrown out.”
Parsons explained, “We don’t want him here in Georgia. He can run as fast as he wants back up to New Jersey. We’ll buy his plane ticket if he wants to fly but he needs to get the charges thrown out on Brian Fletcher. He needs to come clean on his anti-gun history, because really he is in ninth place and he’s dropping fast.”
During a campaign stop in Iowa recently, NJ.com reports Christie pledged he would likely pardon several out of staters permitted to carry firearms in their own states who were arrested in New Jersey under the state’s strict gun law’s.
“I think the law is wrong,” said Christie. “We need to be smarter about the way we do this. What I don’t want is for folks to feel like they can’t come into our state, and be able to travel through it, or visit it, and have to make sure they go on the Internet and look up exactly how you’re supposed to be dealing with the gun laws.”
Christie referenced Fletcher saying, “We have this gentleman who we’re considering right now for pardon, from North Carolina who was up here, helping New Jersey after the storm to repair cell towers,” said Christie. “This is just not the right way to do these things. This was not a guy who was a threat to anybody.”
