(TRENTON) – Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto and Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald on Monday joined with parents of school children killed in Newtown, Ct. and gun safety advocates to welcome plans to finally advance legislation to ban high-capacity ammunition magazines in New Jersey.
“We’ve seen the horrors of large capacity magazines when they were tragically used in mass shootings throughout our nation,” said Prieto (D-Hudson/Bergen). “They serve no other purpose but to allow someone to shoot longer and inflict more damage without having to pause to reload. In the debate over gun safety, saving lives always comes first, and we will do all we can to ensure the tragedy of Newtown cannot happen again. Standing idle can never be an option when such a sensible bill as this can easily be pushed toward law. We must do the right thing and today we’re finally headed in the right direction – toward a safer New Jersey.”
“High-capacity magazines have only one purpose – to inflict the most damage possible in the shortest amount of time,” said Greenwald (D-Camden/Burlington), who has long pushed for the bill. “We’ve made a commitment to these parents make public safety a priority and ban these magazines that have fueled horrible shootings throughout this country. We owe it to the children lost in Newtown and the countless other victims to ensure we do everything we can to prevent another tragedy. With this bill, we continue to respect law-abiding gun owners, but make it more difficult for those who are intent on hurting others. That’s common sense.”
Under current law, magazines capable of holding a maximum of 15 rounds of ammunition are legal in New Jersey. The bill (A-2006) would reduce the lawful maximum capacity of ammunition magazines to 10 rounds. The limit proposed by the bill would bring New Jersey’s laws in line with the magazine limits contained in the original 1994 assault weapons ban.
The bill was first approved by the Assembly in February 2013 as part of the Assembly Democratic gun violence prevention package, but it didn’t receive further consideration after being referred to the Senate.
