It is critical that you attend these hearings in Trenton and make your voice heard!
Next week, the New Jersey Senate will be introducing their gun control package. Next Tuesday and Thursday, the New Jersey Senate Law and Public Safety Committee will be hearing testimony on these bills. After sifting through the 22 anti-gun bills that passed in the Assembly in February, the state Senate has chosen those they plan to focus on, and the list of attacks on your rights is long. It is critical that you contact state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-3) and all members of the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee IMMEDIATELY. Respectfully urge them to oppose any anti-gun legislation that only punishes law-abiding gun owners and ask them to instead support real solutions to crime and mental health issues.
It is critical that you attend one or both of the committee hearings on Tuesday, April 30, and Thursday, May 2. Anti-gun supporters are planning to stage a counter protest and media show, so it is important that the Second Amendment gets the support it deserves!
Buses for both hearings are being organized throughout the state. Please click here for details and to register. Also, if the hearing and overflow rooms fill up again like they did in February, please be prepared to participate in a rally outside the Capitol building.
The full package of bills has not yet been introduced, and could still change before the hearings. Based on the most recent drafts we have seen, the package includes:
- A ban on dozens of popular handguns and rifles used for hunting and target shooting, including a .50 caliber ban.
- First-time applicants for FID cards and handgun purchase permits will be denied if they do not have proof of firearms training -- while anti-gunners sit on the panel that sets the training requirements!
- Ten-year jail sentences and $150,000 fines for parents who pick up their children at school while en route to or from hunting or target shooting, or whose vehicles inadvertently cross through school grounds and have a firearm.
- Suspension of Second Amendment rights for anyone placed on a secret government list created by federal bureaucrats, even without charges being filed and without the person being convicted of any crime (no due process).
- All FID cards will be terminated, even though they are supposed to be good for life.
- Replacement of FID cards and handgun permits will be issued, with a privacy-invading data strip on the driver’s license of every gun owner, flagging your status as a gun owner to anyone who can identify or decode the strip. This will result in an explosion of questionable vehicle searches, and could compromise your privacy to employers, banks, hotels, schools, stores, car rental agencies, and anyone else to whom you give your driver’s license (or if it is lost or stolen).
- Ban on otherwise lawful private firearms sales, even by persons already extensively background-checked, such as FID card holders and pistol purchase permit holders.
- Expanded regulations on new ammunition purchases.
- Other ill-conceived schemes that target the rights of law-abiding citizens instead of punishing criminal behavior.
While most of the Senate legislation to be introduced will further restrict Second Amendment rights in New Jersey, one bill would protect the confidentiality of permit holders. With the protection of permit information, events like the publishing of gun owners’ home addresses in New York by the Journal News will be prevented in New Jersey. New reports indicated that such publication led to the theft of property and endangerment of people’s lives. It is very important that the privacy of New Jersey residents be safeguarded against incidences such as this.
Please contact state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-3) and all members of the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee to respectfully urge them to oppose any anti-gun legislation that would only punish law-abiding gun owners and to instead support real solutions to address crime and mental health issues.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-3)
(856) 251-9801 office
(856) 251-9752 fax
Senate Law and Public Safety Committee:
Donald Norcross (D-5), Chairman
Phone: 856-547-4800
Fax: 856-547-5496
Linda Greenstein (D-14), Vice Chairman
Phone: 609-395-9911
Fax: 609-395-9032
Nick Sacco (D-32)
Phone: 201-295-0200
Fax: 201-295-8294
Christopher “Kip” Bateman (R-16)
Phone: 908-526-3600
Fax: 908-707-4578
James Holzapfel (R-10)
Phone: 732-840-9028
Fax: 732-840-9757
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