Assessing Gun-Control Legislation in New Jersey: A Moving Target

How are the governor and state Legislature doing in their efforts to curb gun violence?

Gun-control advocates will likely say that Gov. Chris Christie has failed to address a potentially deadly problem, and that the state’s already strong laws need to be tightened to better protect New Jerseyans against the kinds of mass shootings that seem to occur with some frequency, most recently in Washington D.C. and Chicago.

Gun-rights groups may not mention the governor at all, while harshly criticizing Sen. President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), whom they accuse of attacking their rights.

The polls are no more definitive.

In a Monmouth University poll released September 17, 9 percent of respondents gave Christie an A on gun issues; 21 percent gave him a B; 27 percent, a C; 21 percent, a D; and 19 percent, an F (12 percent did not grade him).

And a Rutgers-Eagleton poll released September 18 found that about seven in 10 New Jerseyans are “very concerned” about gun violence, with another 22 percent saying they are “somewhat concerned.”

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