NJ Senate advances laws to curb 'ghost' guns, expand gun crimes
The state senate's Law and Public Safety Committee cleared nine bills related to gun safety and regulation at its June 19 meeting at the Statehouse in Trenton.
The bills range from upgrading crimes for manufacturing guns to allowing for the court system to have more time considering pretrial release or pretrial detention when a gun crime is involved.
Eight of the nine bills were introduced in the upper chamber last year. Five of them have already passed the full Assembly.
State Sen. Linda Greenstein, the Democrat who chairs the committe and sponsored one of the bills, said the package 'will keep us safe from emerging threats.'
Groups like Moms Demand Action and the National Council of Jewish Women testified in favor of the bills.
Not everyone was in support of the legislation, though.
Darin Goens, a state director for the National Rifle Association, and Joseph LoPorto of the New Jersey Gun Owner Syndicate, opposed the bills because there are already laws on the books that address gun related issues.
They both also noted that New Jersey is in the minority of states when it comes to taking some of these measures, including the severity of the penalties.
State Sen. Paul Moriarty, also a Democrat, said 'we're not that interested in what other states are doing.'
'There are a lot of states that seem to no longer want women to have reproductive rights. We've chosen a different path,' he said. 'We will continue to choose the path that we think is right for New Jersey at this time.'
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These nine bills would:
Increase the penalties for the manufacturing and distributing so-called 'ghost guns' and 3D-printed firearms from second-degree to first-degree crimes, specifically buying parts to make a gun without a serial number, making a gun with a 3D printer, making a covert or undetectable firearm and transporting a manufactured gun without a serial number.
Require businesses that sell guns and ammunition to use the merchant category codes established by the International Organization for Standardization for processing credit, debit, or prepaid transactions.
Establish criminal penalties for selling or possessing devices designed to convert a weapon into a semiautomatic firearm.
Make it a crime to possess digital instructions to use a 3D printer to make a gun, firearm receiver, magazine or firearm component.
Make firing a gun within a hundred yards of certain structures like homes or schools a crime of the fourth degree and any other reckless discharge of a firearm a disorderly persons offense.
Require the public safety risk assessment used by the Pretrial Services Program to consider a charge, if the act was an unlawful act and not a crime or offense, as risk factors relevant to the risk of failure to appear in court when required and the danger to the community while on pretrial release.
Require county prosecutors to provide the state's attorney general with data on crimes involving the use of a gun that did not result in any bodily injury.
Permit the court system to take additional time to consider pretrial release or pretrial detention when firearm offense is involved.
Require state's attorney general to create a ballistics analysis device pilot program and for the chief law enforcement officer of each participating municipality to submit a report to the state's attorney general within 30 days with a detailed summary of each incident in which the agency used the device and recommends whether the agency should continue to use the device.
Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ laws target ghost guns, expand gun crimes
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