By David Cruz
Correspondent
With the Orlando mass shooting dominating the national discussion this week, Democratic lawmakers revisited their gun control agenda — defending themselves against charges of exploitation, and demonstrating how difficult it is, even in the wake of a national tragedy, to legislate guns.
“This is to announce that the Senate is going to move to override the veto of Senate bill 805,” announced Senate President Steve Sweeney.
Senate Democrats say S805 was intended to get guns out of the hands of convicted domestic abusers. The governor conditionally vetoed the bill last month, calling it redundant and ultimately ineffective.
“This really should not be a policy that is up for debate,” said Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg. “The statistics show — and nobody has disproven this — that a woman is five times more likely to be murdered by her intimate partner of there’s a gun in the home.”
Democrats say they’ll also reintroduce a bill to reduce magazine capacity and the Assembly voted to rescind a softening of the rules governing concealed carry permits. The governor is attempting to broaden the parameters, which some Republicans say will actually serve as some measure of protection for victims of domestic abuse.
“Right now if there’s a serious threat to your life and you go to a Superior Court judge you cannot get a carry permit,” said Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick. “Think about that. Let’s assume a woman has been attacked by her husband in domestic violence; she goes before the court and says there’s a serious threat to my life. That standard is not good enough in New Jersey.”
The logic of more legal guns mean more public safety was met with derision at a gun regulation press conference yesterday.
“If everyone has a gun we’ll be safer,” scoffed Sweeney. “Now, think about that; there are places in this country where kids are now allowed to carry firearms on college campuses because they say there can’t be mass shootings because the kid can pull out the gun and shoot the shooter. You know, this gets ridiculous. When you can take them into a bar?”
But in the heightened sensitivity post-Orlando, your advocacy on either side of the gun control issue is likely to be met with questions about your motivations, which Democrats got yesterday.
Asked if Democrats were exploiting the events in Orlando, “Yes,” replied Bramnick. “Look, anything that says ‘gun’ the Democrats say ‘bad.’ You know, common sense is what we need.”
The governor was more direct when asked the same question. “Of course, they’re exploiting it,” he replied. “The president’s exploiting it. They’re exploiting it. Of course they are. That’s what they do.”
The charge insulted the Senate president. “We’ve had several pieces of reasonable gun legislation that this governor vetoed because he was running for president,” noted Sweeney. “It had nothing to do with what was reasonable or not. For people to say things like that are ignorant and it’s insulting.”
There is a certain amount of deja vu to all this. A mass shooting followed by a legislative call to action, followed by a vote and a veto, perhaps suggesting action but having the ultimate effect, of none.