• Home
  • About Off The Grid
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
Saturday, May 17, 2025
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
No Result
View All Result
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
No Result
View All Result
Off The Grid News
Home Defense Self Defense

10 Years In Prison For Owning This 250-Year-Old Flintlock Gun?

by Off The Grid News Staff
in Self Defense
Print Print
10 Years In Prison For Owning This 250-Year-Old Flintlock Gun?
Share on FacebookShare on XShare on TruthEmail Article

antique pistolA retired school teacher is facing as much as a 10-year prison sentence because he had an unloaded 250-year-old antique pistol in his car.

Four sheriff deputies took 72-year-old Gordon Van Gilder from his home in handcuffs because of the incident, even though Van Gilder voluntarily told the police he had the pistol.

“Beware of New Jersey, don’t come here, don’t live here,” Van Gilder told NRA News.

Van Gilder was arrested and charged with a felony because he was carrying a pistol without a permit. New Jersey’s gun control laws have no exemptions for antique weapons. Van Gilder bought the pistol to add to his collection of 18th century objects.

“I’m charged with a felony that could ruin my life,” Van Gilder said. “That could hurt my pension that I spent 34 years acquiring. I couldn’t vote now.”

His attorney was just as appalled.

“He’s facing up to 10 years in state prison with a minimum of mandatory three and a half to five years, no chance of parole, because New Jersey’s modern handgun law includes antique handguns,” Van Gilder’s attorney, Evan F. Nappen, told NRA News.

Nappen noted that antique firearms are exempt from federal gun control laws.

Arrested for Owning a Collector’s Item

“Apparently there must be a lot of drive-by flintlock shootings in North Jersey to account for the fear the state has of ancient collectible pistols,” Van Gilder said.

How To Hide Your Guns, And Other Off-Grid Caches…

Van Gilder’s nightmare began when a Cumberland County Sheriff’s Deputy pulled him over on a minor traffic infraction in November 2014. The deputy asked Van Gilder what he had in the car, and Van Gilder mentioned the gun. The deputy let Van Gilder go, but the next day sheriff deputies came to his house and arrested him.

The weapon Van Gilder was arrested for carrying is a flintlock, a single shot black-powder weapon that can take a full minute to load. To load the weapon you have to take off the barrel and then use a special rod to ram a ball and powder into it. The pistol is similar to the weapons used in the American Revolution. The flintlock is so hard to load that it is designed to use as a club, making it a lousy self-defense weapon.

Nappen said a prosecutor had told him the sheriff’s department is doing ballistics testing on the pistol in an effort to determine if it was used in any crimes. A firearms expert interviewed by the NRA’s Ginny Simone called the testing a waste of time. Ballistics tests do not work on flintlocks because they do not have a rifled barrel which leaves marks for testing.

Story continues below the video

Not the Only One

Simply carrying a pistol can be considered a felony in New Jersey. In 2013, single mother Shaneen Allen was held in jail for 40 days in Atlantic County, New Jersey, because she was carrying a pistol for which she had a Pennsylvania concealed weapons permit that was not valid in New Jersey, as Off The Grid News reported.

Carrying any pistol without a permit is a second degree felony in New Jersey. The law makes no exemptions for antiques or non-working weaponry.

Not surprisingly, Van Gilder wants to leave New Jersey. He is not alone; moving company United Van Lines reported that more people are leaving New Jersey than any other state.

The Van Gilder Legal Defense Fund has raised $3,315 for Van Gilder’s Defense at GoGetFunding.com. Visit his page here.

What is your reaction to this story? Share your thoughts in the section below:

Get $367.52 Worth Of Survival Blueprints … Absolutely Free!

ShareTweetShareSend

Related Posts

Surviving A Rogue “Robot Dog” Attack

Surviving A Rogue “Robot Dog” Attack

by Bill Heid

Practical Strategies, Tools, and Tactics for Personal Defense As robotic dogs become increasingly common in security, law enforcement, and even...

Staring Down Danger: How to Handle Intimidating Eye Contact with Confidence

Staring Down Danger: How to Handle Intimidating Eye Contact with Confidence

by Bill Heid

Understanding the Power of a Stare Eye contact is one of the most basic yet potent forms of human communication....

Bear Spray or Pepper Spray For The Summer of 2025?

Bear Spray or Pepper Spray For The Summer of 2025?

by Bill Heid

The summer of 2025 will prove to be a period of turbulence and violence, especially in the inner cities. But...

Next Post
The Secret To Gardening In The City

The Secret To Gardening In The City

Please login to join discussion

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Off-The-Grid Bathroom Solutions

Off-The-Grid Bathroom Solutions

Is Free Thinking A Mental Illness?

Is Free Thinking A Mental Illness?

Why Distill Your Own Water?

TRENDING STORIES

  • bubonic plague

    Is Another Bubonic Plague Pandemic On The Horizon?

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Waco Fertilizer Plant Explosion & A Look Back On The “Waco Massacre”

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Make Yourself 3 Times More Likely To Survive A Heart Attack

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • AI Surveillance Of Shoppers: Walmart’s Newest Tool To Grab Your Data

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • ‘Apocalyptic’ Microchip Implants Are Here – And Being Inserted Into People’s Hands

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Subscribe to our Insider Newsletter

Huge discounts on off-the-grid gear and life saving supplements.






‘Off The Grid News’ is an independent, weekly email newsletter and website that is crammed full of practical information on living and surviving off the grid. Advice you’ll never hear from the mainstream media.

  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Extreme Survival
  • Survival Gardening
  • Off-Grid Foods
  • Worldview
  • Natural Health
  • Survival Hunting
  • Privacy
  • Financial
  • Current Events
  • Self Defense
  • Home Defense
  • Pain-Free Living
  • Miscellaneous
  • Off Grid Videos

© Copyright 2025 Off The Grid News.  All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
  • Videos

© Copyright 2025 Off The Grid News.  All Rights Reserved.