On June 19, the New Jersey Senate Law & Public Safety Committee will be voting on eight gun control bills, seven of which have already passed in the Assembly. Being informed and taking action on these bills now is an important tactic in defending our Second Amendment rights in a state already fraught with infringements.
In March of this year, the lower chamber passed 10 gun control bills. The Senate appears uninterested in three of those. Instead, the Senate added one that, if passed, would have to go back down to the Assembly for consideration and a vote. If read out of the Law & Public Safety Committee favorably and without amendment, the remaining seven bills could move on to the full Senate for a final vote. The timing for that is unclear, but there could be an unusual move to fast-track some of these bills during a season where little else moves in the NJ legislature besides the budget.
Heavy Fixation on “Ghost Guns”
In the Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing on the original ten bills, the term “ghost gun” seemed to work its way into the talking points for lawmakers, whether the specific bill being debated had anything to do with the topic or not. New Jersey has already banned the home manufacturing of firearms, along with the sale or possession of kits to build non-serialized firearms. Senate Bill S3894 would now propose to make it a crime of the third degree to possess digital files that could be used with a 3D printer to manufacture frames and receivers. That bill passed in the Assembly this March on a 50-26 vote, with Democratic representatives Simmons and Baily voting “No,” GOP representatives Matsikoudis and Munoz voting “Yes,” and Democratic Assemblyman Joe Danielsen abstaining.
Along with S3894, the Senate has pulled a bill that has been sitting dormant in both chambers for several sessions, which would upgrade the crime of manufacturing or possessing unserialized firearms from a second-degree crime to a first-degree crime. Under this system, S1558 would take conduct that is legal in a vast number of states in the U.S. and place it in the same category as premeditated murder or aggravated sexual assault, imposing sentences of 20 years in jail for something that is not a crime under federal law or in many states. S1558, if passed on to the Senate floor, would require passage in the lower chamber to reach the governor’s desk.
Public Safety Enhanced by Lessening the Penalty for Possession of Illegal Machine Guns
The most bizarre piece of legislation on deck with this package is the proposed addition of “machine gun conversion devices” to the list of banned items in the Garden State. Senate Bill S3893 would make it a third-degree crime to possess such a device. The problem, of course, is that under federal law, a machine gun conversion device is included in the definition of a “machine gun,” possession of which in violation of the National Firearms Act would result in up to 10 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine. Under state law, possession of a machine gun is a second-degree crime with similar potential penalties. Second-degree crimes typically include minimum prison sentences, and defendants charged with second-degree crimes are generally ineligible for either pre-trial intervention or an expungement. As a third-degree crime, it is highly unlikely that criminal defendants trafficking in Glock switches will face any jail time.
It is clear that this bill has nothing to do with combating the scourge of gang violence on streets across America since it reduces the charges and penalties for those crimes. Instead, this law seems clearly designed to create a special new category, giving license to the Attorney General to classify virtually any firearms component the state doesn’t like as a machine gun conversion device, most likely relating to the AG’s recent lawsuit in Maryland surrounding forced reset triggers.
The Harassment of Concealed Carry Permit Holders Continues
Several bills packaged together seem to plainly implicate otherwise lawful self-defense. While on their face, these bills would appear to fall in the category of “getting tough on gun crime,” the overly broad language of these bills and the lack of exceptions for instances of self-defense make the intent clear. S3895 would make it a crime of either the third or fourth degree to “recklessly” discharge a firearm in public without a lawful purpose. To understand the implication, it is important to first understand that the use of force in self-defense is not per se lawful. Self-defense is an affirmative defense to an otherwise unlawful act of assault or murder. So, in the instance of reasonable and proportionate use of force that would shift the burden for the prosecution in a defensive gun use, that person could still be liable under S3895.
S3896 and S3900 deal with technical aspects related to pre-trial detention, which would either increase the likelihood that a person charged with a crime involving a firearm faces detention while awaiting trial or can be held almost indefinitely at the request of a prosecutor so that the state can conduct ballistic tests on a seized firearm. As with S3895, there are no exceptions or carve-outs for cases involving a likely lawful use of force in self-defense.
New Jersey Wants to Spy on You
Senate Bill S3706 would require financial institutions to create special merchant codes for firearms and ammunition. In New Jersey, the sale of both firearms and ammunition is already highly regulated, with pistol ammunition sales, in particular, requiring a separate background check and monitoring on a portal maintained by the New Jersey State Police. Imposing a special burden on private financial institutions is completely redundant to the regime already in place. At best, this law can only facilitate government spying on what are lawful transactions outside of the State of New Jersey. Moreover, last year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in NRA v. Vullo, a case involving the State of New York abusing its regulatory authority to compel certain financial institutions from providing services to the NRA. The Court held that the abuse of that regulatory authority was a clear violation of the NRA’s First Amendment rights. A rogue state bureaucrat exerting pressure on private financial institutions is a very concerning possibility.
Odd Timing
Normally, the New Jersey legislature is fully occupied with budget and appropriations proceedings in June and early July, and normally, there is a break in the legislative session after the budget process is complete that lasts until the fall. This year, the New Jersey legislature is scrambling to tackle a host of legislative issues alongside what is already a cumbersome process. After Thursday’s committee hearing, there are two possible paths. These bills could be in the process of being lined up for the lame duck session that will begin after the election in November. Alternatively, the Senate could fast-track these bills for a vote next week in what may be one of the last opportunities to do so before the session break.
New Jersey’s legislature works on a two-year session cycle, with the current session spanning 2024 to 2025. If, for some reason, these bills stall due to the budget and are not signed into law during the lame duck session, they will have to start from scratch in the fresh 2026-2027 session that begins next January and be passed again in both chambers to reach the new governor.
But given the nexus of some of these bills to the Attorney General’s current lawfare campaigns, gun owners in New Jersey should expect the worst.
