New Jersey would keep young adults from buying rifles and shotguns by raising the age at which they could legally purchase such weapons, according to a bill introduced in the state Legislature by two lawmakers who represent Princeton.
Assemblymen Andrew Zwicker and Roy Freiman (D-Mercer, Hunterdon, Middlesex and Somerset) want to increase the purchase age from 18 to 21. Their bill would allow individuals under 21 to possess such a weapon to hunt, as long as they have a hunting license, to use in a competition, or if they fall within one of the other exceptions carved out in their legislation.
“To me, this is a data-oriented bill on steps we can take to help prevent gun violence,” said Freiman, who is a gun owner, on April 30.
Freiman said the state already has “common sense” gun control measures on the books and he said New Jersey has not seen the type of mass shootings witnessed in other parts of the United States. The proposal would bring the minimum age requirement to buy shotguns and rifles into line with the regulation the state already has to buy a handgun, 21.
“To me, it’s common sense,” said Princeton Councilwoman Heather H. Howard, who is a former state Commissioner of Health and Senior Services, about the bill. She said the measure would mirror what officials in Florida recently did.
“It’s also a recognition that 18- to 20-year-olds commit gun violence at a higher rate,” said Howard, who is a member of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium that will advise policy makers in New Jersey, New York, four other states and Puerto Rico. “If we know younger people are more likely to commit gun-related violence, then we should be limiting access to guns.”
“Medical research does show us teenagers have a different decision process,” Freiman said. “Medical research also indicates teenagers use a different part of the brain to make decisions that are more emotionally based than those of (people in their) 20’s and as we get older as a part of our decision process.”
He said the bill would not change hunting rules. The measure would grandfather in anyone between the ages of 18 to 20 who already has an identification card to buy a firearm. There would also be an exemption for members of law enforcement or the military. Violators would face a fourth-degree offense.
Freiman said there is a companion bill in the state Senate. Legislation was introduced there by state Sen. Joseph P. Cryan (D-Union County) and state Sen. Nicholas P. Scutari (D-Union, Somerset and Middlesex).
“I feel confident we will get the support necessary behind it,” Freiman said. “And I feel highly confident that, should this come across the governor’s desk, he will sign it.”
Zwicker did not respond to a text message or a message left at his legislative office seeking comment.
According to the state’s Uniform Crime Report for 2015, rifles were used in 0.8 percent of all murders that year. Out of 369 such offenses, three involved a shotgun and 263 involved a handgun. The same report found the most frequent perpetrators and victims of murder were black men between the ages of 20 and 24.
This week, the National Rifle Association reacted to the Freiman-Zwicker bill by suggesting it would violate the Constitution.
“The focus should be on proposals that prevent violent criminals and dangerously mentally ill people from acquiring firearms,” NRA spokesman Lars Dalseide said by email April 30. “Legislation that prevents an 18- to 20-year-old from purchasing a shotgun for hunting or a single mother from buying the most effective self-defense rifle on the market deprives these law-abiding individuals of their constitutional right to self-protection.”
In the wake of the shooting that left 14 people dead at a high school in Parkland, Fla., in February, New Jersey lawmakers have passed a series of gun control bills. One such measure that passed the Assembly would require background checks of all private gun sales.
“In New Jersey, we’re doing what we can, but there’s only so much we can do given the fact that, obviously, our borders are porous,” Howard said. “States like Virginia have much more lax laws, and so guns are brought in from other states.”
She said longer term, New Jersey’s officials need to “think about even bigger answers because there’s only so much we can do within our own borders.”