Hunters, trappers and legal gun owners are under attack in New Jersey

Trenton – Sportsmen coalition speaks out against onerous proposed regulations.

The New Jersey Outdoor Alliance on Wednesday released a statement condemning recently revived attempts to change penalize legal firearms owners and sportsmen in New Jersey by dramatically increasing gun permits and fees as little more than the continued bullying and scapegoating of law-abiding gun owners.

“Here we go again. Undaunted by his utter failure to convince bispartisan legislators last year to hike taxes on legal gun owners, Murphy is trying again this year” said NJOA spokesman Cody McLaughlin, “The math is clear as to how illegal guns end up becoming trafficked on the street – and the fact of the matter is that onerous expenses and regulations tacked onto law-abiding sportsmen is nothing short of a cheap attempt to scapegoat legal gun owners – and our members won’t stand for it.”

Governor Murphy this week proposed in his yearly budget dramatically increasing the cost of legal, law-abiding gun ownership in New Jersey with the following proposed fee schedule.

The fast facts tell a different story:

• The yearly average of homicide rate with hand guns from 2000 to 2008 is 220/year. Since the passage of the one hand gun a month bill in 2009 the yearly average for 2010 to 2015 is 261.5/year.
• The Purchasers ID card in question is used to purchase long guns, shotguns and rifles only.  The firearm of choice to commit murder in New Jersey is the hand gun.
• Over a ten-year period, 2009 through 2016, over 69% of all murders were caused by handgun, of which over 87% were shown to have entered New Jersey from other states.
• The yearly average homicide rate for all long guns has remained fairly constant at about 7/year, while hand guns are used in about 70% of all homicides in New Jersey long guns average 1.3%. Of the long guns used in New Jersey homicides that were recovered and traced 80% had either been reported stolen or came from out of state sources.

All of the information and figures contained in this report can be found online in the N. J. State Police Uniform Crime Report for the years listed.

About the New Jersey  Outdoor Alliance: New Jersey Outdoor Alliance’s mission is “preservation through conservation.” NJOA serves as a grassroots coalition of outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen dedicated to the conservation of natural resources and environmental stewardship that champions the intrinsic value of fishing, hunting and trapping, among opinion leaders, policy makers, and the public at-large. To learn more about the organization, please visit: https://njoutdooralliance.org/.

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