Gov. Murphy pledges to sign new gun bills Tuesday after July 4th mass shooting in Illinois
The new laws in New Jersey will regulate the sale of ammunition, tighten access to some weapons, and empower the state’s attorney general to prosecute gun manufacturers and retailers.
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New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday that he will sign a package of seven gun safety bills on Tuesday that will, among other things, regulate ammunition sales, expand requirements for gun owners relocating to New Jersey, and empower the state’s attorney general to prosecute gun manufacturers and retailers.
Murphy made his announcement on Twitter hours after a gunman opened fire and killed at least six people and injured dozens more at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Ill., about 25 miles north of Chicago.
» READ MORE: At least 6 dead, 24 wounded in shooting at Chicago-area July 4 parade
“Not even a parade on the Fourth of July celebrating our nation’s independence is immune from our nation’s gun violence epidemic,” Murphy tweeted. “Tomorrow, I will sign seven sweeping commonsense gun safety bills into law. We cannot wait.”
The package of bills, passed along party lines by the New Jersey Senate and Assembly on Wednesday, was called gun safety 3.0 and proposed by Murphy in April 2021. It had been languishing in the state Senate for more than a year as legislators wrangled over the need for more laws in a state with some of the strongest gun regulations in the country.
The new bills not only regulate ammunition sales and expand the power of the attorney general but also require dealers to sell microstamping-enabled firearms, prohibit the sale of some .50 caliber rifles, call for gun owners who move to New Jersey from other states to register firearms and be trained to obtain new purchaser identification cards that must be renewed every 10 years.
On June 24, following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on gun restrictions, Murphy signed an executive order that directed state departments and agencies to examine how they can prevent gun violence in what he expects to be a surge of legal guns in public.
» READ MORE: N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy looking to expand the list of ‘sensitive places’ where handguns are banned
Other local officials also decried the tragedy in Illinois.
“This is horrifying,” Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf tweeted of the mass shooting in Highland Park. “We should be able to have holiday parades without mass gun violence. We must do more as lawmakers to put an end to these shootings.”
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney wrote on Twitter that he was “heartbroken and outraged by the pervasive violence that continues to terrorize communities across our nation and here in Philadelphia. Lawmakers must do more to protect the American people from gun violence.”