Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie found the courage to do the right thing at the last possible moment Monday, signing into law a bill that bans bump stocks — the gun accessory used in the Las Vegas massacre last October — just as soon as he would face no political repercussions for the move.
Christie, a Republican, left office Tuesday, and on his final full day as governor, he took action on more than 150 bills. He made no statement on the bump stock legislation or his decision to sign it into law. It passed the New Jersey’s state Senate 28-0 with 12 abstentions and the state Assembly 68-0 before landing on Christie’s desk.
“These are simple, easy-to-use devices that increase the firepower and killing power of firearms,” said former Democratic state Sen. Raymond Lesniak who sponsored the bill before he retired last week. “There is no legitimate need for these devices.”
Bump stocks became a focal point of the gun safety debate last October after 64-year-old Stephen Paddock killed nearly 60 people in Las Vegas. Authorities found several bump stock devices in Paddock’s hotel room. The accessory allows a shooter to modify a semi-automatic rifle so it can fire at the rate of an automatic weapon, increasing the rate of fire from 45 to 60 rounds per minute to up to 800 rounds per minute. (Automatic weapons were made illegal in the United States in 1986, though the transfer of automatic weapons made before 1986 is still legal.)
Bump stocks were already restricted in the state — the law allowed possession of the device but banned affixing it to a weapon or having it in the vicinity of a weapon — but the new law outlaws bump stocks entirely. Bump stock owners have 90 days to surrender the devices to law enforcement, and retailers who sell them have 30 days. The sale or possession of the accessory is now a third-degree crime that carries a sentence of three to five years in prison, a fine of up to $15,000, or both.
In the wake of the attack, a national bump stock ban led by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) picked up some steam in Congress but quickly died. Without any action on the federal level, some cities and states took action. In November, Massachusetts became the first state to ban the devices, and New Jersey has followed suit, but only now that Christie will face no consequences from his party for the decision.
When it comes to gun safety measures, Christie has tried to have his cake and eat it, too. The former governor has a history of taking cash from the National Rifle Association (NRA), including for his 2013 race, but around the same time, he signed a number of bills that tightened gun restrictions in the state, including a ban on handgun purchases by people on the terror watch list. In the days after the Las Vegas attack, Christie said he would be open to signing a bump stock ban, but argued that such a move wasn’t actually “a gun law,” as bump stocks are firearm accessories, not firearms.
“A bump stock is not a gun,” Christie said at a press conference in October. “I am not in favor of infringing any further on people’s Second Amendment rights. They have no Second Amendment right to own a bump stock.”
Newly-inaugurated New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy promised to ban bump stocks as governor, as well as outlaw .50 caliber rifles and require more education to get a gun license.
“We believe we can make [New Jersey’s gun laws] stronger,” Murphy said during the campaign, just days after the Las Vegas massacre. “Even if we save one life, it would be worth it.”