New Jersey’s Acting Attorney General Bruck has decided to assemble a coalition with the state of Pennsylvania, DC and 22 other Attorney Generals supporting rule changes regulating how firearm frames and receivers are defined by issuing a comment letter. This should not be shocking that an official in New Jersey would conspire with others in order to usurp the freedoms of law abiding citizens. Governor Murphy in 2018 assembled a similar “coalition” of multiple states to combat so-called gun violence. These “coalitions” really do call into question whether or not they’re engaging in RICO-like activities or if they violate the Constitution. From Bruck’s announcement:

Acting Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck today announced that New Jersey is leading – with Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia – a multi-state coalition including 22 Attorneys General in support of a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) proposal to strengthen federal regulations governing firearms.

Among other things, DOJ’s proposed rule will ensure that federal requirements for serial numbers on firearms and background checks for firearm purchases will apply to products often marketed as “ghost guns.”

The language is troubling. “Ghost gun” has become the new boogieman the anti-freedom caucus uses to scare the population into thinking their Unconstitutional proposals are good ideas. “…will apply to products often marketed as ‘ghost guns.'” is particularly deceptive because I’m not aware of any company “marketing” any 80% lower kit as a “ghost gun”. Further, when the State of New Jersey had to opportunity to fortify forever the “ghost gun” rhetoric in statute, they did not. The term does not seem to appear anywhere in the laws. You guys botched that one.

The announcement goes on. In explaining why the issuance of their letter was so important, the following “statistics” were brought up:

In New Jersey, the comment letter reports, at least 37 unmarked ghost guns have been used in a shooting since the start of 2020.

Moreover, ghost guns represent an increasing percentage of all firearms recovered by New Jersey law enforcement. 55 unserialized guns were recovered in 2019 out of 3,385 total gun recoveries (1.62%); 101 were recovered in 2020 out of 3,375 total gun recoveries (2.99%); and 122 had already been recovered in 2021 as of July 15 out of 2,154 total gun recoveries (5.66%).

What is the AG actually reporting on here? “Unserialized” guns have been around since the advent of the serial number. All someone needs to do is grind off individual identifiers. Is the state lumping into the “ghost gun” category your run of the mill firearm that’s been defaced or has an obliterated serial number? The release really does not make a distinction. I also doubt any reporting on the topic makes a distinction.

Murphy took a chance to weigh in after returning from his jaunt to Italy while the rest of us peasant navigate the pandemic without his leadership:

“We’ve made it a priority of my administration to protect New Jersey’s communities, and the brave men and women of law enforcement, by enacting and enforcing gun laws aimed at keeping untraceable, non-serialized firearms out of the hands of criminals, known terrorists, children and others who have no business possessing them,” said Governor Phil Murphy. “But states should not be in this fight alone. For some time now, gun retailers across the nation have been exploiting loopholes in federal law to continue selling dangerous, easy-to-assemble gun kits to anyone with the ability to pay for them – and without a background check. The proposed federal rule we’re supporting today aims to end that madness, and we welcome it.”

I’d like to see Murphy and Bruck get together, buy an 80% AR lower, and make it into a functioning firearm. Unaided. From block of metal to fully functioning rifle that fires. As a matter of fact, I’d pay some money to watch the two work with these “easy-to-assemble gun kits”. All Murphy, Bruck, and their ilk are aiming to do is regulate. These measures only impact the law abiding citizens that wish to engage in the time honored tradition of building their own firearms. A tradition that goes back to pre-Revolutionary days, and without said practice, the Revolution would have difficult to execute if not impossible.

Most heinous is the fact that these AG’s are supporting changing the law outside of the legislature. You have a beef with the definition of frames and receivers? Do this the right way and have our Federal law changed. Given the attitude that Bruck’s boss has as he rules New Jersey through executive orders, many of us don’t even flinch when we hear this kind of garbage.

I think most rational citizens that really ponder this should have a hard time taking Murphy and Bruck seriously. Crime and violence is a problem in New Jersey. They are taking a prohibitionist attitude towards this problem rather than taking the hard road, putting the real work in, and addressing the root causes. They’re blaming their failures on the rest of the country. I’d love to hear Murphy’s take on what the casual factors are, in his esteemed opinion, as to why after nearly four years in office he was unable to stop all criminal activity. In fact, we can take this a step further and say everything he’s instituted has been a complete failure, otherwise he’d not be looking to push his awful agenda on the national arena, or advocate for more freedom crushing laws.

No, not effective at all. If Murphy and Bruck are as altruistic as they claim to be, they’d appreciate and complement the one million or so law abiding gun owners that are in the state. Instead of seeing the value in having responsible firearm owners and not punishing them, they seek to completely wipe every trace of the Second Amendment off the face of the Earth.

Murphy, you’re a failure. The laws you’ve signed already has had no effect on public safety.

Bruck, you’re going to be dragged down by this administration. If you really believe in reform, target the root causes, leave the law abiding gun owners alone, and start reintroducing freedoms that have been Unconstitutionally taken from the people of the Garden State. Start removing restrictions that are imposed upon the subject of New Jersey. Show some good faith. Most of all, don’t mire the rest of the country with our crappy policies. Stop projecting Murphy’s failures on everyone else. They don’t work. You know it. This is about control, and you’re young enough to get out before you get completely swallowed by the anti-freedom caucus. Let’s have coffee and chat about this.

I have a feeling we’ll be writing more in Bearing Arms about Murphy and Bruck in the future though…

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