http://6abc.com/news/nj-actor-charged-f ... t/1259221/
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- An actor who played a bit part in an independent gangster film is facing 10 years in state prison because he used a prop pellet gun without a state gun permit.A little ridiculous huh?
Carlo Goias, whose stage name is Carlo Bellario, was charged under New Jersey's strict gun law. It requires permits for firearms, including the airsoft gun Goias used while filming a car chase scene.
Goias rejected a plea deal offer Tuesday that could have sent him to jail for less than a year. He faces up to a decade behind bars because of prior felony convictions that prosecutors say include theft and burglary.
"I was shooting a movie - I wasn't committing a crime intentionally," Goias recently told The Associated Press. "Robert De Niro doesn't ask Marty Scorsese if he has gun permits. We're actors. That's for the production company to worry about."
Some state lawmakers say the case highlights the need for New Jersey to change its gun laws.
The permit law recently led to the arrest of a Pennsylvania corrections officer who lacked a New Jersey permit for a gun that was legal in his home state. The charges were later dropped.
Airsoft guns fire nonlethal plastic pellets. Nearly half of the states and many cities regulate the weapons to some degree, according to the San Francisco-based Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
New Jersey defines all non-powder guns as firearms, which require a permit to carry them. State lawmakers are pushing legislation that would give prosecutor's more discretion in filing charges under the statute.....