An Embarrassment In (Practically) Gun-Free New Jersey

"It was a major security breach for the state Department of Corrections, with potentially deadly consequences: A loaded .32-caliber semi-automatic handgun was found inside the walls of New Jersey State Prison on Aug. 4, 2006.

"Commissioner George Hayman responded by ordering the Trenton prison's 1,800 inmates locked in their cells for three weeks. Officers performed one of the most exhaustive searches in the prison's history to ensure no other firearms were stashed inside the state's only maximum-security jail."

In a state with some of the most draconian gun control laws on the books, the authorities in New Jersey can't keep a gun out of one of its prisons.