By Theresa Inacker
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy recently used his personal dislike for the Second Amendment as justification for closing New Jersey gun shops during a national emergency. Governor Murphy unilaterally decided that gun shops and NICS background checks are not essential, but liquor stores and garden centers are.
When asked at a COVID-19 press briefing about the closure of gun shops and his shut-down the NICS process, Murphy stated that a “safer society for [his] taste has fewer guns not more guns.”
New Jersey is one of a dozen or so “point of contact” states which administer NICS. NICS in New Jersey is not a direct inquiry to the FBI database.
Governor Murphy’s statement proves that the shutdown is motivated by his personal views, not by COVID-19 considerations. The pandemic is merely a pretext for implementing Governor Murphy’s hoplophobic views.
“Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant.” – James Madison
The right to keep and bear arms has been recognized as an individual right. One thing that petty tyrants do not understand is that individual rights are not subject to their personal opinions.
Our right to keep and bear arms, is not subjugated to the whims or fancies of a Governor or anyone else who is in a position to abuse his power. This is where the structure of a constitutional republic versus a democracy is clearly manifest. This is what people like Governor Murphy fail to understand. This is what needs to be enforced by our judiciary.
It is incumbent on the judiciary, including the Supreme Court of the United States, to establish a bright, indisputable line that Second Amendment rights are fundamental, and that any government attempts to restrict those rights, are subject to strictest scrutiny.
Because the Court has failed to take innumerable Second Amendment challenges from deeply infringing states like New Jersey, these liberal anti-gun governors are merely emboldened by the Judiciary’s silence. From that silence comes bad behavior by those prone to abusing power. Authoritarians like Murphy will use any opportunity to attack the right to keep and bear arms under the pretext of public safety.
Multiple challenges to Murphy’s illegal and unconstitutional actions have already been filed.
ANJRPC (Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs), New Jersey’s state affiliate of the NRA has filed a lawsuit in federal court. The SAF (Second Amendment Foundation) and Firearms Policy Coalition, in unison with the New Jersey Second Amendment Society and others have also filed suit in federal court.
Abuses of power such as Governor Murphy’s cannot be allowed to stand.
Theresa Inacker, an attorney and Second Amendment advocate, is a member of the US Supreme Court bar, the New Jersey Delegate to The DC Project, and serves as the Communications Director for the Coalition of New Jersey Firearm Owners.
Meh. New Jersey citizens are getting what the majority of them voted for.
If the minority doesn’t like it, they can petition the Judiciary and/or vote with their feet.
The 2nd Amendment of our nation’s constitution isn’t a petition issue !
It’s a non-issue !
No one has the right or the authority to impede the constitution !!
Anyone who doesn’t like it can “petition” The American People to change it , or , BEAT FEET to China.
I couldn’t agree more, and when I cite this decision, which I do often, I always point out that it was rendered while America was in a fight for its life in Europe and the Far East.
“The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts.
One’s right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship, and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote;
they depend on the outcome of no elections.”
—- Virginia Stale Board of Education v Barnette 1943 319 US 624.638 ——-
How do these people keep getting elected?
“If it saves one life”. That’s how. Doesn’t seem to work for cigarettes, tho. Still legal in all 50 states.
The issue isn’t the cigarette or the smoker !
What should be troubling you is , your CORRUPT PUBLIC SERVANTS ! !
Remember a few yrs back , when many of the states one after the next , sued the tobacco industry for hundreds of million of dollars (each) , based on the argument that , tax payer money spent to treat smoking “related”illnesses ?
Not one word about the percentage of the population that smoke & thereby played $3 to $4 dollars per pack tax on $1.45 product !
So , what did those BILLIONS in TAX dollars imposed exclusively to smokers , pay for ?
Not one syllable was uttered , about the addictive Drug ” Nicotine ” being deliberately added to tobacco , to facilitate addiction to cigarettes ! Let alone a RESPONSIBLE government action to prohibit the addition of the addictive DRUG “Nicotine” to tobacco !
Our CORRUPT PUBLIC SERVANTS love tobacco company kick backs cash they receive thru the CORRUPT lobbying system , and the flow of billions in cigarette tax money , they have displayed a lack of accountability for ! Stop being a sheeple for YOUR corrupt government & unscrupulous corporate greed !
The tobacco industry & their corrupt partners in the cesspool aka Washington DC are nothing less than drug dealers !
The problem is CORRUPTION not the cigarette !
“How do these people keep getting elected?”
Simple: “As long as I get what I want, restricting something I don’t care about is fine with me.”
Until…
Want poverty, High taxes, Political corruption, High crime, Just keep voting democrat. Every large city and state controlled by democrats in in failure mode, Deep debt with no real effective plan for progress. Can’t prove this wrong, facts matter, Just keep voting democrat!
You are obviously right about the Democrats.
Sadly, the Republicans also suck to the extreme (though I continue to vote for them).
The Republicans and Democrats just agreed to put the country another $2,000,000,000,000 into debt. The Republic is dying
The debt issue certainly bothers me. Countries can go into debt on trillion dollar amounts for good reason, for example right now, or WW2 ect… but they problem with right now is, we were already 20 Trillion 😳 in debt before this all started, and for what?
I don’t see how the left can justify that. I’ve heard them argue “oh we can just keep going into debt, it doesn’t matter.” I assure them, one day it will. The current Debt problem is about 15 years old now and will likely never be solved.
I come from the left and a family of yellow dog democrats, but there’s a reason I voted for Perot. He spoke of two things that we need to focus on: 1) Bring back / keep jobs in America, and 2) Eliminate the debt. It was actually feasible back then. Imagine if the country had changed course that long ago.
hot damn , there is someone else who gets it !
Someone else who isn’t a sheeple to OUR CORRUPT government & unscrupulous , sometimes criminal corprate greed !
Indeed !! Allow me to quote a former Navy Seal,former wwf wrestler,former governor , he said , democripts & rebloodlicans , both are nothing less than criminal GANGS !
America’s , na , OUR problem isn’t guns or cigarettes or gender appropriate bathrooms or marijuana ! !
OUR problem is OUR Corrupt government and their pandering to unscrupulous ” sometimes criminal ” corporate greed !
Do the math , there are what , some 300 MILLION of us & only a few thousand of them ! ! Aren’t you feed up with cowering to the CORRUPTION ??
Kansas
Texas.
They got big long roads out there.
Warm winds blowing –
Heating blue sky –
And a road that goes forever –
I’m going to Texas…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJURd-FGr30
If Austin wasn’t becoming more like a progressive Mordor every year I might agree with you.
Vic’s been thinkin’ ’bout it lately,
He’s watching some TV….
Texas was my runner-up choice when I fled MN 15 months ago and the political trends there really did worry me. I have lived in three solidly democrat states (including yours) and didn’t want to make it four. I am tired of moving. I have moved between states and countries several more times than most people have bought cars.
I hear ya…
“Walkin’ round” money in the urban centers, Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Pasaic, Atlantic City & Camden negate the suburban vote. A once solidly red state is now very blue. Those of us who are Conservative and occupationally and family – tied to living here try to fight back but it’s a lonely battle.
We can only hope that these current events, along with the disaster that has happened in Virginia since their last General Assembly election, which brought out tens of thousands of 2A supporters to the State Capitol, are very significantly informing and guiding the author of the NYSRPA opinion
Does anyone else think hoplophbia sounds retarded?
“Does anyone else think hoplophbia sounds retarded?”
Nope. The only people that do are cognitively-challenged…
Yes, “hoplophbia” certainly sounds retarded. Hoplophobia, on the other hand, is a serious mental illness.
Hoplophobes tend to be severely retarded (and yet, somehow functional), so it all kind of fits together.
“Murphy Closed New Jersey’s Gun Stores Because of Hoplophobia, Not Public Health”
Well, yeah, we knew that … not news really.
Who’s the wannabe dictator again?
I Feel that whenever laws restrict your personal protection capabilities, THEY SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE IF SOMETHING WERE TO HAPPEN !?!?
For instance, Gun Free Zones !!! IF I GO INTO A STORE THAT’S A GFZ AND IT GETS ROBBED OR A MASS SHOOTING WERE TO HAPPEN, WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO SUE THE STORE FOR NOT PROVIDING PROPER SAFETY !!
SAME FOR SCHOOLS !!
It’s far too long since I read the term “hoplophobia” (the morbid unreasoning fear of weapons) in print.
Col. Cooper would be proud and then he would say, “I told you so.”
Folks like this typically employ large fellows with fully automatic weapons to keep they and their families safe. They would also have others cowering in their homes defenseless.
Maybe he should shut down the abortion clinics too?
We have been trying for years, but the idiots on the left love killing babies- especially minority babies. Do you ever wonder why the vast majority of abortion clinics are in low income minority neighborhoods? A hero of the left Margaret Sangre said “we need to purge the nation of the unwanted masses of black babies” what an ignorant BITCH she was !
“Maybe he should shut down the abortion clinics too?”
Tsk, tsk, tsk. Another gun owner who doesn’t understand: Some people need abortions; nobody needs a gun. Please do come along, and getcher mind right. Abortions save lives (the mother), guns take lives. Do you want to be know as a lifesaver, or a life-taker?
See how all that works?
Next time some criminal is pointing a gun at you to rob you, call an abortionist. Not the police, cuz they have guns.
Jesus……wtf is WRONG WITH YOU????!!!
You are a sick fk….. get the fk out of this country you MORON!
Just like the movie: sam is a man with very limited mental capacity
I wonder when the Irishman will see fit to allow his subjects to buy guns again?
Might be months or years.
“Hoplophobia” ………. Is that like “Hopalong Cassidy?” ………
“Next time some criminal is pointing a gun at you to rob you, call an abortionist. Not the police, cuz they have guns.”
You missed the flavor of the comment.
Im sure it tastes like $hit if it came from your autistic mind……dumba$$ mfer 😉
“Until…”
“True, but I have it on good authority ‘Until’ ain’t happinin’, at least before I die. Then I don’t care even more.”
Liberalism is a mental disorder.
Yes it’s a mental disorder…… and you’re displaying all the signs buddy…..dip$hit
I love living in a Free State. Permitless carry open or concealed, and gun stores are, by law, essential services just like most other retail. The governor, nor any mayor, has the authority to override our law.
Yesterday the feds determined all gun stores to be essential, So it does not matter what these idiot governors think.
“Im sure it tastes like $hit if it came from your autistic mind……dumba$$ mfer ”
Reading is fundamental. Sorry you were educated in public schools.
“Yes it’s a mental disorder…… and you’re displaying all the signs buddy…..dip$hit.”
You do realize you are exposing your disinterest in anything but skim reading for triggers to release your ignorance?
“Yesterday the feds determined all gun stores to be essential,…”
Everyone is happy with a president acting like a king….when it favors them. In the old days, what we title “Executive Order/Action” were known as royal proclamations.
“Just like the movie: sam is a man with very limited mental capacity.”
Skim reading is dangerous. Not every statement is a cartoon billboard. Sometimes there is more than meets the expectation.
“Do the math , there are what , some 300 MILLION of us & only a few thousand of them !”
65,788,583, to be exact; all voters for Hilary. With half the population liking what the Dims do for them, the problem is not organizations, it is ourselves, as a nation. Organizations and corporations take advantage of what the voters demand, or permit. Even elected officials cannot fill an office without the encouragement, or permission, of the voters.
“The problem is not in our stars….but in ourselves.”
Murphy’s Law.
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