After Another Mass Shooting, New Jersey Tightens Gun Laws – After days of widespread gun violence, Governor Phil Murphy further tightened New Jersey’s already severe gun control legislation on Tuesday.
The seven legislation he signed added a range of new limitations, such as extra training requirements, registration requirements, ammunition limits, and bans on .50-caliber rifles. Democrats have sought to achieve this last objective for at least ten years, but Gov. Chris Christie vetoed it.
The bills Murphy signed:
• Require firearm owners who move to New Jersey to register their handgun and receive firearm purchaser identity cards.
• Permit the attorney general to bring legal action for specific gun-related public nuisance violations.
• Raising several firearm manufacturing-related crimes from third to second-degree offenses.
• Amend the term “destructive device” to encompass specific.50-caliber rifles.
• Implement electronic reporting requirements for the sale of handgun ammunition.
• Demand training for handgun permits and firearm purchaser identification cards.
• Require firearm retailers to sell firearms with microstamping after the attorney general determines that they are available.
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Murphy noted that since the initial proposal of the package in April 2021, there have been 1,271 shooting occurrences in New Jersey and about two mass shootings every day nationwide. After mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, which left 31 people dead, including 19 children, he reiterated his call for the passage of this legislation.
Additionally, on the day Murphy signed the bill, shootings had left towns around the country in a state of shock, including one in Highland Park, Illinois, where six people had been killed.
One of the elected officials who spoke during the hour-long presentation was Sen. Joseph Cryan, D-Union, who said that he had witnessed the anguish of the victims’ loved ones hearing the heartbreaking news that their parent, child, or brother had passed away.
Murphy also demanded that future legislation establish the prohibition on bringing firearms onto private property without the owner’s consent as the default rule.
Along with the actions taken in New Jersey, the U.S. Senate passed historic gun control legislation that will increase funding for mental health services, strengthen background checks, and close a loophole that allowed some domestic abusers to purchase firearms. The last time Congress passed gun reform was almost thirty years ago.
