Before New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoed legislation that would have reduced the size of gun ammunition magazines, opponents and proponents of gun control laws had plenty to say on the issue.
A New Jersey Assembly panel voted 5-3 in March of 2014 in favor of A2006 which would have restricted magazine rounds to 10 from the current 15.
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The sponsor of A2006, Assemblyman Lou Greenwald (D-Camden), said the men who used guns in recent mass shootings in the U.S. did so with high-capacity magazines and noted that the gunmen were stopped when they had to reload their weapons.
“We see time and time again in the news. It is when the individual goes to reload their magazine clip, brave individuals are able to step up and apprehend those individuals,”
Greenwald said, the New Jersey Star-Ledger reported. “In Sandy Hook, children were able to flee and escape.”
But it was a child who spoke to the Assembly panel against the legislation.
“I have worked and trained very hard to get to the level I am at, and if A2006 becomes law, I will be forced to choose between giving up on a very bright and promising future in a sport that I love, or asking my dad if we can move to another state,” said Shyanne Roberts, 9, the Star-Ledger reported. “Everyone is upset about bad people doing bad things to others. But punishing the people who didn’t do anything wrong is not the way to stop bad people.”
Roberts, who participated in shooting competitions at the time of the hearing, told the panel that the Glock she owned in March would have been deemed “worthless” with just a 10 round magazine.
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Max McGuire, a Villanova University political science graduate student also told the panel that trying to stop mass shootings with a reduction in the magazine capacity would be “like lowering the speed limit to stop drag racers.”
According to The Blaze, the CEO of a New Jersey gun training center told the Assembly members he wouldn’t abide by the restrictions of A2006 if it was signed into law.
“Have you guys seen what is happening in Connecticut right now?” he said. “One million gun owners in New Jersey are also gonna say, like our brothers and sisters in the north, that we will not comply. And I can tell you here and now, I will not comply.”
Just before Christie vetoed the legislation in July 2014, several parents of the children killed in the Sandy Hook shooting tried to meet with the governor, only to be denied.
"(Gov. Christie's) refusal to meet with us is a cowardly political move, but his statement accusing us of 'grandstanding' and furthering 'empty rhetoric' is a blow to the memories of our children,"
Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden said in a joint statement, UPI reported.
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