By David Cruz
NJ Today
New Jersey already has some of the nation’s toughest gun laws, but that hasn’t stopped lawmakers from attempting to introduce even stricter controls. Late last week, it was Gov. Chris Christie, introducing his version of gun legislation, saying his emphasis on addressing some of the causes of gun violence — including mental illness and violent video games — makes more sense than anything the Democratic-controlled legislature will come up with.
“The existing system that we have in place in New Jersey is much stronger already than the proposed legislation which failed in the Senate earlier this week,” Christie said.
But Democrats call Christie’s effort insufficient. They put up their own set of bills. One in the Senate from President Steve Sweeney and another set from the Assembly. The problem is, Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald says Sweeney’s bills are dead on arrival.
“Without some key components — primarily that around a limit on gun magazine capacity — the real focus of the bill, which is trying to curtail violence, will not be successful,” Greenwald said.
Greenwald played down any perceived rift between himself and Sweeney, a fellow South Jersey Democrat. Sweeney, too, said there was no beef.
“I respect the Assemblyman, and I’ll continue to try to work with him,” Sweeney said. “I can’t make the Assembly do anything, but I did my job along with Sens. Norcross and Weinberg and strengthen the gun laws in New Jersey that were already the second toughest in the nation.”
But the fact is that Mayors Against Illegal Guns has pulled its support of the Sweeney bills, calling off a news conference scheduled for today. Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy is a big part of that group. He said disagreements, especially among lawmakers of the same party make an already tough job even more difficult.
“Nothing is easy. And what you would think is basic common sense and easy to accomplish doesn’t happen. So we applaud their efforts, but I think they should get together, clean up both bills, maybe combine them and we’d have something very important and beneficial,” Healy said.
“The Senate’s gonna put some bills forward. I’ve now put bills forward,” Christie said. “And now we have to let the process work to reach consensus and what works for the people of the state and what’s best given the laws we have in place now.”
All the sides in this say they want to get meaningful gun regulations passed and that it’s just the process that makes it look like they’re the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.