A New Jersey actor faces 10 years in prison for firing a prop pellet gun while filming an independent film.

Carlo Goias, who uses the stage name Carlo Bellario, was charged with firing the fake gun without a state gun permit as part of the Garden State's insanely strict gun laws. In New Jersey, all guns require a state permit, even non-lethal airsoft guns like the one Goias was using.

The actor's problem arose while he was performing in a small-budget film called "Vendetta Games." He plays a drug dealer's bodyguard and was filming a car chase scene in a residential neighborhood. The gun sounds were supposed to be added later, but just seeing Goias pretending to fire from a car window prompted neighborhood residents to call the police.

"I pretended to shoot out the window; they were going to dub in the sound later," Goias told the Associated Press. "We get back, and within a couple of minutes we're surrounded by cop cars." Goias, a standup comedian by trade, has prior felony convictions for theft and burglary, which led to him facing up to 10 years in prison.

"I was shooting a movie — I wasn't committing a crime intentionally," Goias said. "Robert De Niro doesn't ask Marty Scorsese is if he has gun permits. We're actors. That's for the production company to worry about."

Goias may have skeletons in his closet, but being sent away for 10 years over a fake gun is a reminder of just how absurd New Jersey's gun laws still are. Earlier this year, a Pennsylvania corrections officer was charged for bringing his gun into New Jersey without a permit, even though he had a legal permit in Pennsylvania. Raymond Hughes, the corrections officer, was charged after he was hit by a drunk driver while returning home from Atlantic City with his wife. He informed the responding police officer of the firearm, and was charged. He faced a mandatory minimum of 3 1/2 years in prison.

The charges were dropped a month later because the gun most likely wouldn't have been found if not for Hughes being the victim of a crime by the drunk driver.

The case is also reminiscent of the plight of Shaneen Allen, the young mother of two from Pennsylvania who purchased a firearm for defense after being robbed. She was driving in Atlantic City (notice the pattern) when she was pulled over for a minor traffic offense. She, too, informed the officer that she had her firearm and was arrested.

Even though she was a first time offender, the prosecutor in her case, John McClain, decided to throw the book at the single mother. She faced up to four years in prison. McClain denied Allen entrance into a first-time offender program, the same program he offered to former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice after he was shown on camera beating his fiancee in an elevator.

McClain promised — after public backlash — to "review" Allen's case. A year and a half after her arrest, Allen was officially pardoned by Gov. Chris Christie.

Yet still these kinds of abuses happen to innocent citizens. Goias is just the latest example.

Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.