The state of New Jersey has a lot of problems. Then again, what state doesn’t? They all have their challenges, to be sure.

However, it seems New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has all of his state’s problems beaten.

No, really, that must be it. All of its problems must have gone up in a puff of smoke and now legislators can focus on the little things. How little?

Well, it seems the state is banning “realistic” toy guns.

Governor Murphy signed a bill on Tuesday that would restrict the sale of realistic toy guns and ammunition, in response to the fatal police shootings of Tamir Rice and Tyre King several years ago.

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The bill has several stipulations for toy gun manufacturers, which say toy guns cannot be blue, black, silver, or aluminum, the barrel of the gun must have an orange stripe on it, and the barrel of the gun must be made with the same material as the rest of the toy gun.

The problem with the shootings of Rice and King aren’t due to the lack of legislation, but a lack of understanding. No, I’m not bagging on the cops here. In those cases, they did precisely what I would have done under the circumstances.

No, the problem was that no one taught these children that if a police officer tells you to drop something, you drop it.

Also, you don’t point a gun at someone who has a real one.

The question for toy manufacturers is whether New Jersey represents a large enough market to bother with trying to comply. If not, the supply of toy guns will be greatly reduced to the Garden State. That might be a bigger problem in the long run.

While the deaths of Tamir Rice and Tyre King were legitimate tragedies, I can’t help but wonder how many other parents use toy guns to teach their children gun safety as I do with mine and like my father did with me. It’s a good way to learn the Four Rules in a way where violating them has minimal risk.

How many children will be denied this kind of opportunity?

Then again, this is Phil Murphy we’re talking about here. He probably prefers the kids not to learn gun safety because if they did, they might become gun people and then have this pesky insistence on maintaining their gun rights.

Folks are weird this way.

There is a very real possibility that this is an effort to dissuade people from becoming gun folks. Toy guns are a way of life, of course, but if people don’t get toy guns, then it’s possible they might not grow up to buy real ones.

Frankly, none of that matters. What matters is that this is a stupid bill that never should have seen the light of day, much less been turned into law. Then again, what else should I expect from New Jersey at this point? It’s simply what they do up that way, apparently.