By: José Niño
New Jersey is a Venus fly trap for anything related to the Second Amendment.
The state’s gun laws are among the most stringent in the nation. According to Guns & Ammo magazine’s Best States for Gun Owners rankings, New Jersey finds itself at the bottom of the list in 48th place.
New Jersey is taking gun-grabbing to another level now that Attorney General Gurbit Grewal is, according to Lee Williams of The Truth About Guns, “using ‘undercover’ detectives to entrap firearms retailers and manufacturers – especially those in other states – in the hopes that the exorbitant fees and penalties he will extort from them will force the owners out of business.”
AG Grewal is focusing his sights on retailers who sell firearms parts for homemade guns and retailers who sell standard-capacity magazines. New Jersey’s judiciary has partnered with the AG’s office to help carry out this scheme. For example, a New Jersey state court issued an order that’s making a Florida firm pay the state of New Jersey $150,000. The rationale used to justify the order is that the Florida firm refused to provide the Attorney General a list of its customers’ names and addresses.
Former Florida prosecutor Lisa Chittaro believes that the New Jersey AG is using his office to pursue an anti-gun and anti-business agenda. Chittaro was a Republican candidate for State Attorney of Florida’s 12th Judicial Circuit in 2020.
“This is a crafty and questionable use of litigation,” Chittaro said. “Because of their elected position, this seems designed to impede and attack a legitimate business – a business that did not target the citizens of that state – for the sole purpose of attacking the Second Amendment.
“This attorney general is trying to harness access and regulate the spread of the internet, and hold a legitimate business accountable,” Chittaro continued. “This is an attack on the free market, an attack on the Second Amendment – it’s an attack. They are using their office as a political weapon. They are pushing through their political agenda of gun control, and they are overreaching into the state of Florida. New Jersey is trying to put a legitimate Florida firm out of business.”
The anti-Second Amendment Left is not playing around. When they can’t get laws implemented at the federal level, they’re willing to use all levers of state power at lower levels of government to realize their goals.
Gun owners must prepare themselves accordingly by promoting litigation efforts against anti-gun state actions, while also putting forward nullification measures with teeth that allow citizens to not comply with unconstitutional laws and orders.
José Niño is a freelance writer based in Austin, Texas. Sign up for his mailing list here. Contact him via Facebook, Twitter, or email him at [email protected]. Get his e-book, The 10 Myths of Gun Control, here.