Based on the NJ State Police Uniform Crime Report, murders have been steadily increasing the last 5-7 years.  They do note that the trend in violent crimes has been slightly decreasing or remaining nearly the same.  There were 427 murders in New Jersey in 2006, and there were nearly 30,000 rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults in the same time period. The picture at the left shows a map of murders ONLY in NJ by county .  While the placement of each dot is not reflective of reality, the number of dots per county is accurate.

Each and every dot is a loss of human life through violence.  Many counties have seen much, much more violence than others. If you were to place red dots on the picture for aggravated assaults, car-jacking, home invasions and armed robberies. the map would be mostly red.  Close to 70% of these violent assaults include weapons like firearms and knives.

What can you do to protect yourself?  Within your home you can take certain precautions, including alarms, and even surveillance. You can also take up defensive measures, just like the preparations that you might undertake for fire, medical or any other emergency.  However if you wish a firearm for protection from an armed intruder, you'd better get started now, as many municipalites in New Jersey will make you wait - some up to 6 months - in spite of the NJ statute that says 30 days or less.

And if you wish to protect yourself in your car or while out in public, you cannot except with your bare hands.  Be very aware that your attackers will no doubt be armed and ready.  The legislators in New Jersey have removed nearly all of your ability to be defensively armed in the name of "public safety" while murders have steadily increased in our state.   You may not carry a firearm that you can legally own at home, unless you are a retired law enforement officer.  In all probability you cannot carry any sort of weapon at all.  In the legal sense you are guilty until proven innocent relative to any sort of defensive tool.  But your attackers already will know this, and will have some sort of weapon on top of their advantage of surprise.  If you do not like this any more than we do, get involved.  Please write your legislator, and call them, and tell them how you feel about being defenseless.