I’m sure everybody has heard the story about Sergeant Tahmooressi. But in case you haven’t, he was a former Marine who got disoriented while driving at night and accidently entered Mexico with two military style rifles in his vehicle. In Mexico, possession of any military style rifle is illegal. You would be subject to immediate arrest, jail and if convicted, a long prison term.
Sergeant Tahmooressi’s crime was the crime of location. The weapons he had in his possession were perfectly legal to own in the US. Regardless of the fact that he had no intention of ever entering Mexico, because he was standing on Mexican soil with a firearm illegal in that country, he was promptly arrested. In the United States, intent is important in commission of a crime. Not so much in Mexico. After 214 days in a Mexican prison, he was released.
We criticize the Mexican government for jailing an American citizen who had no ill intent towards them, but don’t we do the same thing in this country? It’s very similar to the case of the single mother of two who had a Pennsylvania issued Concealed Carry Permit; but once she crossed into New Jersey, was arrested and faced a maximum of ten years in jail. It was a crime of location. When the gross stupidity of this situation received nationwide coverage, the county prosecutor reduced his demand for the minimum three years without parole to Pre-Trial Intervention, a kind of parole with no jail time.
Does any of this make sense? In one State you are a citizen, trusted to carry a weapon for your personal defense but in another, a criminal, even though you have no intent to do anyone harm. Being capable of defending yourself against attack in New Jersey is a crime. How is all of the effort to jail otherwise law-abiding citizens working out for New Jersey? Well, not to good as Camden, Trenton and Newark routinely make the top ten lists for most violent cities in the US.