Yesterday I stood with Senators, Assembly members, community and educational leaders who are ready to do something— people who believe, as the majority of New Jerseyans do, that enough is enough and that we can end this senseless and relentless cycle of gun violence. Over a year ago, I introduced a comprehensive Gun Safety 3.0 package and this moment demands that the Legislature finally take action.
These proposed laws are hardly revolutionary. They would:
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Mandate safe storage of guns;
- Ensure those seeking to buy a gun are actually trained in the safe handling of that gun;
- Give police tools to better track the paths of firearms used to commit crimes;
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Prohibit the sale of weapons that can bring down helicopters;
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Allow us to hold the gun industry liable for the carnage it has enabled
I am calling upon the Senate President and the Assembly Speaker to put these bills up for a vote, so the people of New Jersey can see where every legislator stands on these common sense measures.
But I’m not stopping there.
I am also asking the Legislature to immediately put up every bill put forward by Republican legislators seeking to unravel our gun laws. I want every legislator to show whose side they have chosen to be on – the people of New Jersey’s or the gun lobby’s.
Let the people of New Jersey see who votes “yes” to legalizing hollow-point “cop killer” bullets, allowing high-capacity ammunition magazines, saying that churchgoers should be able to take their guns to services, repealing our red-flag law, and letting those known to have made violent threats, including domestic abusers, unfettered access to as many guns as they want. Let’s put every gun bill up to a vote, so the people of New Jersey can see who supports common sense gun safety and who wants New Jersey’s streets and communities to be flooded with guns.
Let’s see who the gun lobby banks on with their blood money.
I am proud of the progress we’ve made to become one of the nation’s leading states on gun safety. But I am not satisfied. Those who stood with me yesterday aren’t satisfied.
Let’s act now before our nation is lulled back into its slumber.
-Governor Phil Murphy
