Longtime Second Amendment advocates may remember the name Loretta Weinberg, who was the architect of New Jersey’s original “smart gun” law that would have banned all “dumb guns” from being sold in the state once a “smart gun” came to market. Weinberg served in the New Jersey legislature for decades until her retirement in 2022, but though she’s no longer in office she’s still doing all she can to infringe on the rights of law-abiding residents of the Garden State, including rallying her fellow senior citizens to call for gun bans and other infringements at her nursing home earlier this week.

Armed with walkers and canes, the group of 30 senior citizens ranging in age from mid-80s to 100 held up signs they drew and chanted for stricter gun regulations outside Arbor Terrace Teaneck, an independent senior-living community. The rally was prompted by recent mass shootings and stories of children being shot after knocking on the wrong door.

It was organized by a resident no stranger to sounding the alarm on gun laws — former Sen. Loretta Weinberg.

“We should be relaxing in our recliners … but we can’t!” Weinberg, 88, shouted into a bullhorn. “This is a message to our representatives in Washington — we’re here with walkers, we’re here with our signs, and we want you to hear our voices loud and clear! It’s time for action!”

… In the drizzling rain, the feisty group of grandmas and grandpas chanted, “Ban assault rifles!” and “No guns for teachers!” between speeches from volunteers with Moms Demand Action and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

“This proliferation of guns, along with a lot of very angry people, brought to mind that we can no longer sit aside while the NRA holds our government hostage,” Weinberg said, calling on lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to pass universal background checks and firearm licensing laws. “We know you’re on our side, but that’s not enough.”

I’m pretty sure that Weinberg has been using that line since she was first elected to the New Jersey legislature back in the early 1990s, and it’s just as ridiculous now as it was back then. It’s the gun control lobby that’s actually spending more money on campaigns these days, not to mention the fact that Democrats have control of the White House and U.S. Senate. Even when Democrats had control of the House last year a “universal” background check measure was too heavy a lift for the party, much less an “assault weapons” ban. The House narrowly approved a gun ban bill by a vote of 217-213, but the Senate never held a vote because Chuck Schumer knew it wasn’t going to pass; not because the NRA is “holding our government hostage”, but because a ban on commonly-owned semi-automatic rifles isn’t nearly as popular as anti-gun activists like Weinberg claim it is.

In a way, I feel sad for Weinberg. For decades she’s made it her mission to infringe on the Second Amendment rights of New Jersey residents, but now she’s forced to watch as the state’s “may issue” system is undone and many of the state’s gun control laws (new and old alike) are facing legal challenges that could wipe them off the books. I’m not upset in the slightest about the prospect of her legislative efforts being relegated to the dustbin of history, but it’s disappointing to see her still bitterly clinging to the idea that we can ban and infringe our way to safety after all these years.

If Weinberg wants to wile away her golden years trying to infringe on the fundamental rights of others that’s her call, but thankfully New Jersey gun owners and Second Amendment supporters are there to push back on her stale rhetoric and outdated demands to treat the Second Amendment as a collective right. In fact, it might be time for Garden State gun owners to go visit grandma and grandpa in their own senior living center just to make sure they’re not being fed a steady diet of anti-gun propaganda along with their three meals a day.