Following the most-recent mass shooting in Orlando, New Jersey's progressive gun laws could be a model for the nation.
The United States has just experienced its deadliest mass shooting in recent times with the death of nearly 50 people at an Orlando nightclub. Predictably, there will be a rallying cry for tougher gun control laws and a surge in firearm purchases.
Fortunately, here in New Jersey there are still laws prohibiting the sale of certain semiautomatic weapons. This state's progressive gun laws served as a model for the 1994 federal ban on assault firearms like the AR-15-type rifle used in Orlando.
But the sad fact is that the nation is awash with guns capable of firing many bullets in a few short seconds. It's hard to get an accurate fix on just how many of these assault-style weapons are owned by Americans, but a conservative estimate is more than a couple million. That's a lot of fire power in the hands of civilians, most of whom are responsible gun owners.
It only takes one or two people armed with an assault-style weapon to create the kind of carnage we saw in Orlando or San Bernardino, Calif., in 2015 (14 killed) or Aurora, Colo., in 2012 (12 killed) or Newtown, Conn., in 2012 (28 killed).
In the past 10 years, assault-style rifles have been used in 14 public mass shootings.
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In light of these shocking statistics, it really makes no sense that this country has dropped the ball on not renewing a ban on these weapons of mass death.
The original federal law banning certain types of assault weapons was passed in 1994, after the nation was shocked by the massacre of 34 children and a teacher in Stockton, Calif., in 1989 by a gunman armed with a semiautomatic AK-47.
Bowing to pressure from gun-rights supporters, who pointed out the many flaws and loopholes in the law, legislators decided to not to renew the law when it expired in 2004.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, has stated repeatedly fellow Republicans in Congress will not bring up new gun control legislation, even in the wake of December's shootings in San Bernardino. Ryan was shouted down after leading the House in a moment of silence on Monday to mark the deaths in Orlando.
The polling firm Gallup, which has been tracking attitudes on gun control, has found that 55 percent of Americans in 2015 said they favor stricter gun laws, close to the high of 58 percent in 2012 following the Newtown school shooting, but still below the 60 to 62 percent in favor between 2000-04.
That gives you an indication of the uphill battle it would take to persuade Congress to pass even a weak ban on assault-style guns like the one that withered away in 2004.
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Fortunately, here in New Jersey there are still laws prohibiting the sale of certain of firearms, such as the AR-15. The Garden State's progressive gun laws could again serve as a model for a new federal ban on assault weapons.
With the increased concern about terrorists or mentally unstable people inflicting mass casualties with military-style weapons, we have to be vigilant that these types of guns do not fall into the wrong hands.
It's a fine line between our right to own guns and the need to protect us from gun violence.
But a 2014 study by the Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C., found that states with weak gun violence prevention laws and higher rates of gun ownership have the highest overall gun death rates in the nation. Conversely, states with the lowest overall gun death rates have lower rates of gun ownership and some of the strongest gun violence prevention laws.
New Jersey should strive to be in the latter category.
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