New Jersey further restricts gun laws after Supreme Court ruling

Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday further tightened New Jersey's already strict gun control laws after a weekend of gun violence nationwide.

The seven bills he signed will add a range of new restrictions, from requiring additional training and registration to limiting ammunition and prohibiting .50-caliber rifles. That last point has been a goal of Democrats for at least a decade, but was vetoed by Gov. Chris Christie.

“They are commonsense. They are smart,” Murphy said. “They live up to our Jersey values.”

The bills Murphy signed:

• Require firearm owners who become New Jersey residents to obtain firearm purchaser identification cards and register handguns acquired out of state.
• Allow the attorney general to sue over certain public nuisance violations arising from the sale or marketing of firearms.
• Upgrade certain crimes related to manufacturing firearms from third-degree to second-degree.
• Revise the definition of "destructive device" to include certain .50-caliber rifles.
• Regulate the sale of handgun ammunition and electronically report handgun ammunition sales.
• Require training for firearms purchaser identification cards and handgun permits.
• Require firearm retailers to sell microstamping-enabled firearms upon determination of availability by the attorney general.

The package was initially proposed in April 2021, and Murphy noted that since then there have been roughly two mass shootings a day nationwide and 1,271 shooting incidents in New Jersey. He renewed the call to further this legislation after mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, leaving 31 dead, including 19 children.

And on the day Murphy signed the bills, communities across the country were reeling from shootings, including one in Highland Park, Illinois, that killed six people.

Sen. Joseph Cryan, D-Union, was among the elected officials to speak at the hourlong presentation and said he had seen the horror of victims' loved ones learning the devastating news that their parent or child or sibling has died.

“Somewhere in this world between 1776 and today, between a musket and an AKA-47, the rules changed,” Cryan said. “It may be a right under the Second Amendment, but it should darn sure be a regulated right.”

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The bills Murphy signed included most of his proposals, but one measure did not make it to his desk.

That bill, S504, would increase the minimum age at which a person is eligible to receive a firearms purchaser identification card, used to purchase shotguns and rifles, from 18 to 21. It has already passed the Assembly, and a similar bill was introduced in the Senate but has yet to be heard by the Law and Public Safety Committee.

“Our work is not done. This is a huge day for gun safety in New Jersey. We have already made an enormous amount of progress,” Murphy said. “We need to take more steps, and I’m confident we will.”

A bill known as the “New Jersey Safe Storage of Firearms Act” would require all gun owners to store unloaded firearms in gun safes or locked boxes, with ammunition locked away separately, and would allocate $500,000 for the Attorney General’s Office to establish a public awareness campaign about firearm storage requirements and penalties. It has been introduced in both chambers but has not yet advanced from committee.

Another bill that hasn’t been introduced in the new session would require advance notice to be given to teachers and parents ahead of school security drills and that the students be made aware that it is only a drill. It would also prohibit props such as fake blood or firearms and sounds such as simulated gunfire, which could be traumatic for students.

A legislative resolution supporting the “States for Gun Safety” summit has been introduced in the Senate but not the Assembly.

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Murphy’s efforts come two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen that essentially deemed the concealed carry restrictions in New York unconstitutional. Last week New York held a special session to restrict gun laws in response to that ruling.

The day after the decision was announced, Murphy said the “right-wing majority has made its decision" but that it “will not stop us from doing everything in our power to protect our communities and our residents."

He also signed an executive order that will require state agencies to start compiling a list of "safe places" in which the state could ban firearms, such as sports stadiums, arenas, bars, restaurants, child care facilities and hospitals.

Murphy also called for future legislation to set a default rule that firearms can't be carried onto private property without approval from the property owner.

The Supreme Court decision could set a precedent on New Jersey's ban on assault rifles such as the AR-15 and AK-47. A federal lawsuit filed by the Firearms Policy Coalition, a gun rights group, and two of its members says New Jersey's ban "unconstitutionally infringes upon Plaintiffs' fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms."

In addition to measures being taken in New Jersey, the U.S. Senate passed historic gun control legislation that will boost mental health funding, enhance background checks and close a loophole that allowed some domestic abusers to buy firearms.  It is the first time in nearly three decades that Congress has enacted gun reform.