Murphy's Risk on His Gun Package: Appearing Slickly Opportunistic
- Old Bridge Republicans
- May 4, 2021
- 4 min read
By John Van Vliet, InsiderNJ
Mark Razzoli, an Old Bridge Councilman and former Democrat, looked at the issue from his experience as a police officer. “I was 26 years in law enforcement, I worked narcotics, street crime, and retired as a detective. I worked a lot of shooting cases, armed robberies, you name it, I handled it. Here’s the reality. The guy selling a gun on the corner of Carteret and Pacific Avenue is not going to ask anyone if they have a criminal record, about their mental health, and if they have a gun permit. For the governor it is all showmanship, taking attention away from the nursing homes, the vaccine rollout, the lack of plans to reopen the schools, and New Jersey’s economy because of his restrictions.”
Like Doherty, Razzoli said that New Jersey already has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation. “I think if any law abiding American can pass the background check and meet the qualifications, then they have a right to own a weapon. One thing I can tell you from working shooting cases and interrogating people who have done shootings, is that evil kills people, not guns. If you get a determined person who wants to create carnage, he or she is going to. It is disturbing that we have elected officials who will race to the podium to politicize people being murdered from gun violence. Those are the same people who are ignoring gun violence in urban areas where you see a significant increase over the last year or so.”
As for the nuts and bolts of the governor’s proposals, Razzoli described it as, “Irrelevant, it’s window dressing. If you want to slow crime, you start by funding and supporting the police. Stop talking about removing qualified immunity. My response to removing qualified immunity is, would anyone want to be a doctor if he or she couldn’t obtain malpractice insurance? I think not. Criminals are becoming empowered and acting brazenly because of the climate, and we have elected officials who are helping them by passing legislation that is handcuffing the police instead of the criminals.”
Razzoli echoed Rice’s sentiments with respect to gangs and the larger factors which contribute to gun violence and urban crime in general. “I think people aren’t realizing that gangs, guns, and drugs go hand in hand. Properly funding law enforcement, where departments have a proactive narcotics or street crime unit—where they are out there getting guns off the street—that’s what’s important. Governor Murphy’s getting involved in gamesmanship where it’s all about the optics. Let’s stop restricting law enforcement and get back to good old-fashioned policing. He needs to be supporting the police by properly funding where they can increase these units. It’s no coincidence that gun violence, say in New York City, increased when they started downsizing those specialized units.”
For Razzoli, the governor’s approach is based on misunderstanding the root causes of gun crime—a sentiment expressed in one form or another by all three of the officials interviewed.
Razzoli suggested that an anti-police atmosphere, including budgetary cuts, were key to the rise in violent crime and reversing this would give departments and agencies the ability to lower crime and get illegal weapons out of the hands of criminals. “I think it’s really important for people to understand that when a bad person wants to get a gun, they’re going to get a gun. These bills affect law-abiding American citizens. That’s not preventing crime.” Razzoli did not think that regular citizens carrying guns would necessarily deter or reduce crime, however. “If people have a carry permit, if there’s something that happens in front of them, that doesn’t mean they are going to intervene. Let’s face reality, unless you’re properly trained to handle certain situations, people are going to freeze. There are arguments on both sides, but the reality is that these guns bills that Phil Murphy is involved with are all optics.”
Carrying permits are almost impossible for ordinary New Jersey residents to obtain as it is, and Razzoli would rather that Trenton and local governments empower street crime units to best handle gun crime. “Those specialized units are worth the investment. They are what takes the guns off the streets. Government should be handcuffing criminals, not the police. You’re going to see a surge of crime if elected officials continue to go after qualified immunity. By not funding and supporting law enforcement, you’re asking for a surge in crime, how can they do their job today? As an elected official, I don’t care what level of government you’re on, your number one priority is public safety, to protect the community. Last time I checked, that’s what drives your local economy. These gun laws that the governor is pushing for is a great way to remove the attention from everything else going on.”
According to reports, the overwhelming number of weapons employed in New Jersey crimes originate from outside the Garden State’s own borders. “It was always known that guns were being funneled into New Jersey from other states, so when you’re handcuffing law enforcement, you don’t have those stops like you used to have when you’d get intelligence. Not everyone is perfect, there are good and bad in every profession, unfortunately, but you can’t handcuff law enforcement because of the acts of a bad few.”
While some New Jerseyans will cheer or oppose the bills simply based on their party labels, the governor risks appearing opportunistic rather than pragmatic or wise among his own base if he fails to build an understanding across the different communities affected by gun legislation. When bipartisan concerns over the essence of legislation appear, then the governor—a self-styled champion of New Jersey progressives—would do well to listen. To do otherwise may be seen, universally, as politicizing tragedy and fostering legislation which is not seen as a priority in a time of state, national, and global crisis.
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