STATEMENT: Giffords Applauds New Jersey Senate Law and Public Safety Committee for Approving Package of Gun Safety Bills
April 16, 2018 — Today, Giffords, the gun safety organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Captain Mark Kelly, applauded New Jersey lawmakers for their action on a new gun violence prevention package. The New Jersey Senate Law and Public Safety Committee followed approved bills that would help keep New Jersey among the states with the strongest gun laws to better protect New Jersey families and communities.
“Gun violence continues to hurt Garden State families and communities every single day,” said Nico Bocour, State Legislative Director of Giffords. “Leaders in the state know that more needs to be done. Thankfully, they are not standing still. We applaud leaders in the Senate that are working to make New Jersey gun laws even stronger to show how we can better prevent gun violence. This package contains a number of innovative measures that can better address this crisis, including legislation that would help keep guns out of the hands of a person who poses an extreme risk of danger. It also has bills New Jersey residents have long demanded that will close the long gun loophole and limit magazine capacity. New Jersey lawmakers are showing the rest of the country what courage looks like.”
The full list of bills passed by the Senate today is:
- Establishing an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO): S 2259 would establish a judicial process to acquire an order of protection so that an individual in crisis would be temporarily prohibited from firearm possession. New Jersey joins other states that have introduced ERPO bills backed by Giffords. Last year, Oregon’s Governor Kate Brown signed an ERPO bill into law after members of the Giffords Oregon Coalition testified on behalf of the bill and urged Oregon leaders to pass it.
- Closing Background Check Loopholes: S 2374 would require private sales of firearms to be processed through a dealer. There is no gap more glaring in our gun laws than the federal background checks law, which allows felons, domestic abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill to purchase firearms at gun shows and online without undergoing a background check. In states that require background checks for all handgun sales 47% fewer women are shot to death by their intimate partners, there are 47% fewer firearm suicides, and 53% fewer law enforcement officers are shot to death by handguns.
- S 102: This bill would reduce magazine capacity to 10 rounds.
- S 2376: This bill would codify the requirements to meet the justifiable need standard for CCW applications.
- S 2245: This bill would prohibit possession of ammunition capable of penetrating body armor.
- S 160: This bill would create a non-standard risk-based firearm removal law based on a risk a person poses due to mental illness.
- S 2465: This bill would establish the crime of purchasing components to unlawfully manufacture untraceable firearms.
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Giffords is a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives from gun violence. Led by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Navy combat veteran and retired NASA astronaut Captain Mark Kelly, Giffords inspires the courage of people from all walks of life to make America safer.