On Thursday, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said – despite his state having some of the strictest gun control laws in the country – they need more.
“You’ve been putting some pressure on your legislature there in there in New Jersey in the wake of the tragedies, the unthinkable tragedies in Uvalde and in Buffalo on gun reform. What does that look like in your state and how might the laws change there?” journalist Willie Geist asked the governor.
“Yeah, we have among the most — the safest gun safety laws in America. I think we’re in the top couple of states. But we could be safer,” Murphy replied.
“And so we’ve got gun reform package 3.0. We’ve already passed two significant and signed two significant packages of legislation, but we need to do more. Whether it’s how you store your ammunition, how old you should be to own a long gun, you should just like you take a lesson to learn how to drive a car, you should do the same thing before you’re purchasing a gun,” he finished. “Common sense stuff.”
Murphy then expounded by saying that most of the guns used in crimes in his state are from out of state. He said that America needs to enact tougher gun laws as a whole to combat gun crime in New Jersey.
“Eighty five percent of the crime guns that are retrieved in New Jersey come from out of state. And so as strong as we might be in terms of our laws, we’re not an island. We need the country to move forward as well. So we need both and God willing we will get that.”
On Sunday, Murphy praised his state’s legislature for setting the framework for more gun control in his state.
Murphy tweeted about it as well saying, “The bipartisan Senate agreement on a framework for national gun safety legislation is a positive first step in restoring sanity to our national dialogue and should be drafted and passed as quickly as possible.”
“We know that more far-reaching steps are needed that are unlikely to happen in Washington anytime soon. It will remain up to the states to lead on gun safety – so I again call upon my legislative colleagues to put our Gun Safety 3.0 package up for a vote,” he continued in his statement.
The full details of the bill are unknown, but according to the New York Times, it increases background check provisions and gives authorities the ability to check juvenile and mental health records of gun purchasers under 21 years old. The bill reportedly also provides the state the ability to enact controversial red-flag laws.
In recent months, Democrats have pushed for more gun control after the shooting in Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Polling suggests, though, that the economy is on the minds of most voters coming into the 2022 election.
Democrats want more gun control. That’s not a surprise. They’ve been striving for it for decades and now they think they have a chance to pass national legislation to curb gun violence. The problem is that most voters just want our politicians to fix the economy. Do you want gun control laws in your state? What would you do if your governor tried to pass more? Let us know your thoughts.
