Bryan Miller of Cease Fire NJ
One of the gun lobby’s wildest voices, Alan Gottlieb of the so-called Citizens’ Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), weighed in on the pages of the Princeton Packet recently, employing his usual disingenuousness and hyperbole, to oppose Assemblyman Reed Gusciora’s bill A-2116.
Pro-gunners like Gottlieb believe it is everyone’s right to obtain any gun, in any quantity, at any time and carry it anywhere, including in public — hardly a prescription for public safety. Mr. Gottlieb and his ilk care not about the common good. For them, it’s all about personal privilege and their petty fears.
Such selfishness about guns doesn’t play well in New Jersey, though, as folks here overwhelmingly support stronger measures to limit access to guns, particularly massively destructive guns like the .50 caliber sniper rifles and handguns A-2116 is intended to prohibit from civilian purchase. So Mr. Gottlieb used those old gun lobby tactics of distraction, obfuscation and outright lies to try to convince. To these guys, the ends (a gun in every hand) always justify the means, no matter who is endangered.
Mr. Gottlieb falsely claimed A-2116 would “ban most firearms over .50-caliber, including original Revolutionary War muskets and replicas, popular black powder hunting rifles.” Hogwash. A-2116 was carefully and painstakingly crafted, negotiated and amended by Assemblyman Gusciora precisely to ensure that hunters and historical re-enactors would not be affected in the least.
In fact, Assemblyman Gusciora even met with representatives of the gun lobby to seek their help to make that certain. Sadly, the gun lobby is not interested in compromise. It seeks, instead, through disingenuous pronouncements like Mr. Gottlieb’s, to block this critical public safety measure.
The truth? A-2116 would prohibit civilian purchase of .50-caliber sniper rifles and handgun only. Those .50- cal sniper rifles, ‘Big 50’s’, are military weapons. They are designed so a single shooter, standing more than a mile away and using armor-piercing/incendiary bullets (available on the Internet) can destroy material targets including chemical plants, refineries, rail tank cars and passenger aircraft — the very types of targets that dot the New Jersey landscape. Yes, Big 50’s, which can be purchased at NJ gun shops for as little as $1,500, are the perfect domestic terrorism weapon.
And, .50-caliber handguns? They are the only handguns for which ammunition can be legally purchased to penetrate the soft body armor worn by police and other first responders.
Society has a right and duty to balance personal privilege and the common good — which is exactly what Assemblyman Gusciora’s A-2116 does. It needs to be enacted, and quickly, for public safety’s sake.
Bryan Miller, executive director
Cease Fire NJ
Morristown
