The state of New Jersey is one of those most hostile states toward the Second Amendment and they have been for quite a while. The only sort of pro-gun move I've ever seen was the repeal of a law that mandated only smart guns be sold in the state once the technology was viable, and they only did that because it became clear that the law was making it so companies didn't want to develop such guns.

Literally everything else has been outright hostility.

It's pretty bad when folks in New Jersey move to Illinois to get a taste of gun freedom, yet it's how things fall.

What's more, the gun control policies in place simply aren't working. 

In a rational universe, officials there would step back and figure that if restrictions aren't doing what they were supposed to do, then maybe it's time to try something else. Unfortunately, we don't live in a rational universe.

New Jersey needs additional laws to stem a surge of so-called ghost guns and firearm conversion kits that transform semi-automatic guns into fully automatic ones, the State Commission of Investigation said in a new report released Tuesday.

Ghost guns are 3D-printed firearms that can be assembled for a fraction of the price a licensed firearm user can purchase a similar gun. They lack serial numbers that enable law enforcement to track them.

Though manufacturing ghost guns and selling designs for such weapons is illegal in New Jersey, the law does not criminalize possession of the computer code needed to make them.

“The Commission’s findings reveal that New Jersey should adopt or amend existing laws to address the latest technological advances used by criminal elements to circumvent gun restrictions and corrupt firearms to make them even more dangerous,” the commission’s report said.

That should change, the commission said, because those plans and the 3D printers needed to assemble ghost guns and other firearm components — like magazines with higher capacities than allowed by state law — are readily available.

“We will review the report once we receive it and give the SCI’s recommendations careful consideration,” said Richard McGrath, a spokesperson for Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union).

First, it's long been held that code equals speech. As a result, I'm not sure you lawfully can prohibit the code for making so-called ghost guns.

Yet even if you do, it's a bit of computer code. Someone can keep that on an easily hidden USB drive and you're going to have a hard time finding it so you can prosecute them.

But the code doesn't do things by itself. Someone has to use that code to make a "ghost gun," which as noted is already illegal in New Jersey.

If prohibiting the guns themselves doesn't stop people from making them, why would anyone think that prohibiting the code would suddenly do anything?

So what happened was their ban on unserialized, homemade firearms failed to stop bad guys from getting them--a shocker, I'm sure--and so their answer is to ban another part in the process because people who were willing to break the law will suddenly decide to be law abiding.

This is doubling down on a failed policy and it won't change a single thing.

Then again, I've seen nothing from New Jersey officials to suggest signs of intelligent life.