NJ Proves Gun Laws Don't Work

The anti-gun lobby is getting busy in New Jersey these days, in part to stave off significant embarrassment.

New Jersey, my home state, has been hailed by the anti-gun lobby as a shining example of what anti-gun laws can do. Unfortunately, new statistics suggest that isn't much.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - New Jersey has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, but shooting deaths in its major cities still surged last year.

So, what's the answer? Apparently to the anti-gun lobby, it is to try and spread a failed philosophy out into neighboring states. And they are partnering up with the anti-war lobby to convey the message.

Anti-gun activists point to weapons spilling into New Jersey from other states as a large part of the problem. On Saturday, they were adding their voices to an anti-war rally to draw attention to the danger of weapons at home.

"We think that it's entirely appropriate that this rally and march will be across a bridge between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, because it's across such bridges that guns come into our state that devastate our communities," said Bryan Miller, director of CeasefireNJ, which was joining members of Million Mom March at the rally.

This is utterly ridiculous given the vast differences between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is a big hunting state and they have the land and space to accommodate that. It isn't the hunter's rifle that is being used in inner-city crime in New Jersey. It's the Saturday night special and the 38.

Also interesting is that the Brady Campaign touts a reduction of gun trafficking across state lines as one of its great successes.

An analysis of crime gun trace data indicates that the Brady Law has significantly disrupted interstate gun trafficking from those states that did not conduct background checks prior to implementation of the Act to states that were conducting background checks.

Those claims seem to refute the very claim the NJ anti-gun crowd is making. Consequently, we have tough state gun laws in New Jersey which aren't working, a Federal Law which is or isn't working according to the anti-gun folks on any given day. And what do they suggest? More of the same, of course.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist or a gun smith to realize that answer doesn't make sense.

Comments

[Rick]

Adding more laws onto the myriad of existing gun laws is completely useless. New Jersey has hunting land, the .38 has nothing to do with anything (thugs prefer 9mm) and the "Saturday night special" (welcome to the '60s) is most often stolen. If we MUST make more laws, let's add an extra five years for possessing a gun during a crime, including interstate sales w/out a license. Amazingly when guns were easier to get and more of the population (per capita) owned them...there was less gun crime. Of course society wasn't completely rotten then as now.