After an emotional debate, the Assembly Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday, mostly along party lines, to advance a nine-bill gun control package. Meanwhile, a political logjam over this latest round of Gov. Phil Murphy’s reforms appeared to finally ease as Senate Democrats prepared to consider the bills.
Referring to recent massacres in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York, advocates pushed for more restrictions on guns and ammunition, particularly bill A-509 that would raise the legal age to purchase long guns from 18 to 21. Opponents noted the measure would strip Second Amendment rights from legal adults, in a state that already has some of the toughest gun control laws in the nation. The bills now go to the Senate Judiciary Committee for debate.
