Murphy, sending a ‘strong and clear message,’ signs 6 gun control bills into law

TRENTON — Gov. Phil Murphy, declaring he was sending “a strong and clear message” to President Donald Trump, signed six gun control bills into law during an hourlong ceremony Wednesday attended by hundreds of gun control advocates and a survivor of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting. Some of the laws merely align New Jersey with already existing federal laws and formally roll back a Christie administration regulation. Others are more substantial and controversial, including reducing the permitted size of ammunition clips. Murphy and others who attended the signing ceremony at the Hughes Justice Complex in Trenton were all about the larger message the new laws send to Washington. “It sends a strong and clear message to our president, to our Republican leadership in Congress and to the corporate gun lobby: We are going to be a leader in the fight for common-sense gun safety laws,” said Murphy, a Democrat who took office in January. Toms River high school student Zach Dougherty, who has organized a local effort to push for gun control measures, introduced Murphy, who sat beside Alfonso Calderon, a survivor of the Parkland school shooting who has traveled the country to advocate for gun control. “We have one message to all of those politicians who won’t wear their pride on their sleeve, who won’t stand up to the [National Rifle Association] and who won’t be decent human beings: We’re going to vote them out,” Calderon said. The ceremony lasted an hour, with speakers repeatedly urging the crowd […]

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