Calls to end assault weapons and strong words from the National Rifle Association (NRA) are making news today, but they also made headlines a generation ago in New Jersey during Jim Florio’s administration. During his term in office, the former Gov. Jim Florio signed into law a ban on assault weapons in the Garden State. In the first of a two-part interview, Florio shared his insights on gun control with NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider.
Last week’s tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School brought home dramatically the horrible impact that guns can have on our society, says Florio. New Jersey has the toughest assault weapons ban as a result of legislation passed during Florio’s administration. “It was a hard fight but people ultimately came to the conclusion that we didn’t need Uzis and AK-47s in our society,” he said.
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But there are other ways to stem the circulation of guns, he says, citing closing the gun show loop hole where people can purchase guns without background checks and limiting access to high capacity magazines.
Today, the NR broke its week-long silence on the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School with a defiant presentation. The event was billed as a news conference, but NRA leaders took no questions.
Florio says today’s event was unusual in that the NRA tends to work on a more “subterranean” level, politically speaking, and away from public view. Combating that strategy requires getting as many groups involved, according to Florio.
“It is only when the general public becomes engaged and informed that the public interest really gets dealt with, that’s what happened in New Jersey. We went consciously out to get the religious people involved, educational people, healthcare people, public safety people. They all became involved and understood that we should be doing something about the assault weapon ban and they prevailed.”
Florio is “astounded” by existing laws that allows just about anyone access to guns, including those on a terrorist watch list
“In the House of Representatives this year, there was a vote to prohibit selling guns to people on the terrorism list, the bill didn’t pass, the Congress took a pass on that and now it’s technically legal to sell to someone on the terrorism list,” he said.
Florio says that even the U.S. Supreme Court recognized there are limits to the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
“They were very clear in saying that reasonable restrictions on the right to have a gun is something that is clearly in the public interest so that’s really what we’re talking about. I mean I know people who are members of the NRA who are good people and are not in any way felons of any sort, they don’t want their children to be exposed.”
According to Florio, the NRA is largely driven by gun manufacturers and gun dealers who stoke fear in people who feel threatened by gun control laws.
“They threaten people saying if we let them take away an assault weapon the slippery slope will result from them coming and taking away your hunting weapon which is really farcical.”
On Wednesday, President Obama announced that he would make gun control a central issue in his second term, promising to submit broad new firearm proposals to Congress no later than January. Florio approved of the president’s strategy, saying that it’s important not to let too much time pass in taking action.
“I think what you do is just let people not forget,” said Florio. “I think this is so dramatic and the president was very wise to say we’re going to do this quickly, I’m going to have Vice President Biden come back in January, and the expectation is that within a couple of months we’ll being able to take some reasonable action.”