TRENTON, N.J. — A bill introduced earlier this year by a New Jersey lawmaker would outlaw nearly every semi-automatic rifle and shotgun in the state, and the attendant penalties align with crimes that are typically far more heinous.
The bill seeks to send New Jersey gun owners back to the founding era and deprive them of modern firearms that are protected under the Constitution and are in common use, and it does so by precluding gun owners from possessing firearms with “military-style features,” the newest propaganda attack launched by the anti-gun left.
At its core, Assembly Bill 442 takes the current system of classification of “assault weapon” (a semi-automatic rifle that has the ability to accept a detachable magazine and has at least two offending features) and reduces the criteria to just one offending feature.
The list of offending features includes:
- a folding or telescoping stock
- a pistol grip
- a thumbhole stock
- a second handgrip or protruding grip
- bayonet mount
- a flash suppressor, muzzle brake, muzzle compensator, or threaded barrel
That means an AR-15 (or ANY semi-automatic rifle) that has a detachable magazine AND a pistol grip (which almost all do) or a forward grip designed to be held with the non-firing hand, for example, would be banned under this new law.
Similar provisions apply to both semi-automatic shotguns and semi-automatic pistols.
The bill also bans “Any firearm manufactured under any designation which is substantially identical to…” a list of specific, named firearms (which currently numbers over 50), although “substantially identical to” is not strictly defined by law, giving the state great leeway that would favor any prosecution it brings forward.
It further bans any firearm with a bump stock attached, even though the Supreme Court ruled in Cargill that bump stocks cannot be classified as “machineguns.”
The measure has no grandfather clause, making overnight criminals out of gun owners, and a violation is a crime of the second degree with up to a 10-year prison sentence and $150,000 fine along with forfeiture and a lifetime gun ban.
Due to the technicality of the bill, it’s highly unlikely it was authored by the New Jersey lawmakers with their names attached (Assemblyman Michael Venezia and Assemblywoman Morales), rather, it is more likely they are carrying water for a well-funded anti-gun rights organization that both knows the current law, and knows what changes would most effectively neuter New Jersey gun owners.
The measure is nothing more than a disarmament scheme, given that all current weapons owners must pass multiple state and federal background checks, and by virtue of that fact alone have proven themselves to be law-abiding citizens.
This is all occurring against the backdrop of an impending decision from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on New Jersey’s current “assault weapons” and magazine bans, with the court requesting briefs from litigants just last week seeking input based on two recent Supreme Court cases.
Additionally, on June 30, the Supreme Court indicated it would take up the nation’s first-ever case addressing bans on “assault weapons,” a move that most on both the right and the left agree will result in an outcome favorable to gun owners.
The bill is currently sitting with the Judiciary Committee.
