Political Infighting Delays Attack on Gun Owners
Only weeks after some anti-gun state Senators were caught on a live microphone discussing the need for “confiscation” of firearms after a Senate Budget Committee hearing, their Assembly colleagues fumbled through an embarrassing hearing this week on Senate Bill 2723/Assembly Bill 4182. The New Jersey Assembly Law & Public Safety Committee failed to garner enough votes to pass the centerpiece gun control bill offered by Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3).
The legislation eliminates current FID cards and replaces them with either a privacy-invading driver license endorsement or other form of ID, suspends Second Amendment rights without proof of firearms training, imposes a 7-day waiting period for handgun purchases, ends all private sales, and effectively creates a registry of ammunition purchases and long gun sales. Anti-gun legislators have touted the bill as a national model - a claim that seems to have little basis in fact given that New Jersey has the second toughest gun laws in the country, while being plagued by some of the most dangerous cities in America, such as Newark and Camden.
Shockingly, the Committee Chairman halted the roll call vote, already half-complete, when the math wasn’t adding up for the deeply flawed anti-gun proposal. The Chairman uncomfortably scrambled to remedy the flouting of legislative rules by announcing that the bill was being held for further amendments. The bill will likely be resurrected at another committee hearing later this month. Leadership in the Assembly will most likely stack the deck this time to ensure their preferred outcome. It’s expected they will simply alter the makeup of the committee or assign the bill to a more favorable committee to guarantee passage.
These damaging gun control bills and embarrassing gaffes are far from a “national model.” This process has only hurt the law-abiding citizens of New Jersey, and this legislative package will do nothing to address the state’s crime problem. Please continue to contact your Assemblymen and Senators and respectfully ask them to oppose all gun control bills.
Contact information for your state Legislators can be found here.
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