We begin with an update on the deadly Fourth of July shooting at a parade in a Chicago suburb. Police say the suspected gunman is in custody but hasn’t been charged. According to authorities, the 21-year-old suspect used a “high-powered rifle” he purchased legally in Illinois, opening fire in Highland Park, killing at least six people and injuring roughly three dozen others. The terrorizing incident is putting gun reform laws in the spotlight once again.
On Tuesday, Gov. Phil Murphy signed a new package of bills to tighten New Jersey’s already strict gun laws. The bills regulate ammunition sales, ban certain rifles, tighten registration, among other things. Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), noted the coincidental timing of the event in the shadow of the Highland Park attack, but added that in cities like Paterson, Jersey City and Newark, gun violence is different, if just as deadly.
“I speak from a perspective of someone who can identify the difference between a firework and a gunshot, that when you talked about the incidents in the city of Newark, that I’m talking about my neighborhood, that just this weekend there were two other incidents of gun violence again is not a mass shooting but in a district where we have always understood that gun violence has been a public health crisis facing all of us,” Ruiz said.
The bills passed almost exclusively along party lines. Critics say they amount to self-serving rhetoric, targeting legal gun owners so that Murphy can raise a national profile and big-city Democrats can pay lip service to their crime-challenged cities.
