Democratic New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy challenged Republicans in the state legislature to stop kowtowing to the National Rifle Association and pass substantial gun control laws, saying the GOP members are in the pocket of the gun manufacturing lobbyist and thrive off its “blood money,” Politico reports.
“Let’s put every gun bill up, so the people of New Jersey can see, in no uncertain terms, who supports commonsense gun safety and who wants New Jersey’s streets and communities to be flooded with guns,” Murphy said. “Let’s see who the gun lobby banks on with their blood money.”
Murphy specifically called out a number of Republicans for their support of gun protections: Assembly Minority Leader John DiMaio who is co-sponsoring a bill that would eliminate the statutory prohibition against the possession of “hollow point” ammunition; state senator Ed Durr who is sponsoring a bill that would remove capacity limits for ammunition magazines and a measure that would repeal the Extreme Risk Protective Order Act of 2018 or so-called “red flag law,” which prohibits a person from owning or buying a firearm or ammunition if the person is deemed to pose “a significant danger of bodily injury.”
Spokespersons for the Republicans claimed Murphy’s references were “false and inaccurate,” but did not point to specific things that were inaccurate about the GOP’s sponsorship of the bills, which are all supported by the NRA.
“Let’s make every legislator show whose side they have chosen to be on — the people of New Jersey’s or the gun lobby’s,” Murphy said Wednesday. “In the face of mass shooting after mass shooting throughout our nation, in the face of children being slaughtered to the point where the reports indicate these beautiful children were unrecognizable, I say let these folks come out from behind their press releases and their tweets and cast votes before the residents of this great state.”