Murphy’s F you to SCOTUS on concealed carry passes Assembly (Opinion)

Falling largely along party lines and after an extremely heated debate the NJ Assembly voted to pass serious restrictions on concealed carry rights. Rights that were just cleared by the Supreme Court of the United States by precedent set in a New York case. It passed 43 to 29 with one abstention and all Republicans present for the vote giving thumbs down.

Now it goes to the Senate and if approved will of course be signed into law by Gov. Murphy. After all, it was the governor who ordered his staff to find every possible way to subvert the Supreme Court decision which finally paved the way for legal gun owners to be able to carry in public without having to show justifiable need.

I don’t know what to say about this that I haven’t already said. The governor’s playbook is to put so many locations on the restricted list that even if you could carry a concealed weapon it will be too much of a pain in the ass to bother. He wants to make it such an inconvenience to exercise your legal right that you’ll give up.

The emotional debate before the vote was intense. Republicans argued the bill would violate the 2nd amendment. Democrats said it wouldn’t. Republicans argued it would not pass a court challenge. Democrats said it would.

Among the ridiculously long list of places New Jersey would tell you you couldn’t carry is places of worship. This of course would include synagogues, which have historically been targeted with violence. Experts agree this would even restrict armed security from being present to stop such attacks.

This bill is wrong, and it’s insulting to law abiding gun owners. It’s also particularly insulting to SCOTUS.

Progressive Phil Murphy was nearly apoplectic when their decision didn’t go his way. Instead of going on record as respectfully disagreeing, he’s disrespectfully throwing the political version of a childish temper tantrum.

He may be willing to strip synagogues of their right to defend themselves but would he be willing to strip his own security detail of their weapons?

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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