N.J. Newspaper: 2nd Amendment a 'Curse' That Brings Carnage

The New Jersey Star-Ledger published an editorial calling the Second Amendment "a curse" and said it's making it harder for state lawmakers to pass gun-safety legislation.

The editorial criticized the Supreme Court's ruling last year, which struck "down a more-than-century-old state law that restricts the right to carry a concealed handgun in public" and has made it easier for lawsuits to stymie any effort by the state's governor to "sharply limit where guns can be carried in New Jersey."

The editorial also claimed that "where you have fewer guns and stricter laws, you have fewer gun injuries and deaths, research has shown. Yet while most people are solidly on [the governor's] side, the law may not withstand legal challenges."

These gun rights, according to the editorial, have created an America in which "we continue to bleed daily, with an average of more than 300 people shot every 24 hours, including 22 children and teens."

The newspaper rebuked the logic of the Second Amendment, stating that "the core rationale is that we need guns for self-defense, but what we have is a public policy in which nearly 49,000 people a year are killed by guns and nearly 400 million firearms flood our streets — more than one for every citizen."

The editorial emphasized that the idea of guns for self-defense is a "fanatical interpretation of our Second Amendment" and said the U.S. has a "fetish with gun culture."

It pointed to Canada as an example of a place where gun control is properly enforced, stating that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "is almost reaching the point of banning gun sales" across the country.

The Star-Ledger editorial celebrated the idea that Canada has "no Second Amendment, no constitutional right to gun ownership. Guns are treated the same as any other consumer good that the government can regulate," adding that the United States should strive to be a country in which "we could regulate guns as we do cars, based on a public health approach."