New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy Proposes Sweeping New Gun Control Measures

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) proposed a new slate of gun reform measures in a Newark press conference Thursday. The governor’s push coincides with a deadly shooting at a Fed Ex facility in Indianapolis.

Murphy said the reforms were “perhaps the most sweeping gun violence prevention package in the nation” and will “guarantee unquestionably that New Jersey will have the strongest gun violence prevention laws in the United States of America.”

Murphy and Democrats’ bill would establish a four-year expiration period for firearm purchaser ID cards, mandate gun merchants keep electronic logs of ammunition and firearm sales and report those sales to the state police, and require new gun permit applicants to pass “the lawful and safe handling and storage of firearms” course less than four years before applying for a permit. Another provision in Murphy’s bill would ban the sale of .50 caliber firearms. A similar bill passed New Jersey’s legislature in 2013, but former Gov. Chris Christie (R) vetoed it.

“New Jersey already has strict gun laws. To go even further really puts a stamp on what we believe in this state — what our values are, what we think should happen in New Jersey,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) said at a press event Thursday.