A North Jersey 19 year old is facing a mandatory 3 year sentence and possibly up to 10 years for violating New Jersey's tough firearms regulations.  His heinous crime didn't involve just any gun though.  Generally, there are three types of guns the anti-gun fanatics want to ban.  New Jersey however has gone one step further and has alone criminalized a fourth category of guns.  The toy-gun:

The weapon involved was no .357 Magnum or 9mm Beretta. Rather, it was a plastic air pistol that shoots plastic pellets the size of papaya seeds.

Adults can legally buy the guns for $20 to $75 online or at sporting goods stores without a firearms permit. Parents can buy them for their underage children.

Yet New Jersey law defines them as firearms. So, get caught with one and you could either walk away or be arrested and charged under the state's tough gun code, which mandates stiff prison terms for unlawful firearms possession.

Hence the scare quotes around "guns" in the title.  He is facing a mandatory 3 year sentence for possessing a soft air gun. 

Not to say he is totally innocent.  A policeman observed him shooting at a woman with his soft air gun.  Indeed, not very nice.  But was shooting at her with a soft, plastic pellet the worst of his crimes?  No, not according to New Jersey:

He was arrested and later indicted on various charges – the most serious being possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose.

Ironically, New Jersey can not prevent these "guns" from being sold because of federal law, but at the same time they criminalize even possession of the same.

However, state, county and municipal governments cannot regulate or ban the sale of soft air guns because federal law specifically prohibits them from doing so, Aseltine said.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms doesn't classify air or spring guns as firearms because they don't have the essential parts of a firearm, such as a receiver or a frame, said ATF spokesman Andrew Lluberes.

A federal guideline also states specifically that a pellet gun, though "a dangerous weapon," is not a firearm.

Still, a buyer who walks out of a store in New Jersey with an air gun is technically carrying a firearm, under state law.

"Someone could be prosecuted if they were carrying these guns without a permit," Aseltine said.  "But county prosecutors have discretion whether to prosecute or not."

Some county prosecutors say the best way to clarify the confusion is to treat air and spring guns like firearms.

Once again, New Jersey prosecutors are trying the ruin the life of some young man who is to be made an example of in their overzealous jihad against guns.