On Friday Gov. Chris Christie (R) commuted the prison sentence for former Marine Sergeant Hisashi Pompey, arrested six years ago for possessing a legally owned gun that was unregistered in the state of New Jersey.
On April 13 Breitbart News reported that Pompey brought his handgun into New Jersey while visiting from Virginia. Following an altercation at a nightclub, one of Pompey’s friends retrieved the gun and was arrested. Pompey was also arrested because the gun was not registered in the state of New Jersey.
ABC 7 reported that Pompey did “three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan for which he received medals for bravery.” He was a military police sergeant who now has a wife and young children at home. Until Christie intervened on Friday, Pompey was preparing to surrender to authorities for what would have been a minimum 36-month sentence for possession of an unregistered firearm.
When news of the commuted sentence reached Pompey, he responded by making sure it was not a joke. Pompey said, “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, this isn’t April Fools, right? I don’t know how to react. I’m grateful, grateful.”
Pompey’s wife said, “I just said, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. It’s like you’ve given us our life back.”
Christie’s decision to commute Pompey’s sentence does not expunge the arrest from his record, it simply removes the punishment that resulted from the arrest.
In April 2015, Christie pardoned Pennsylvania mother Shaneen Allen, who was arrested in October 2013 for carrying a legally owned handgun in her car. Allen had a Pennsylvania permit to carry, but New Jersey does not recognize Pennsylvania’s permit. And on December 23, 2015, Christie pardoned U.S. Marine Joshua Velez, a Massachusetts concealed carry permit holder who was arrested over a year earlier for bringing his 9mm handgun into the state of New Jersey.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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