NJ Governor Surrenders, Allows Gun Stores to Reopen After Trump Official Says They’re “Essential”

New Jersey’s Democrat governor Phil Murphy caught heat from gun owners last week after announcing that he was closing all gun stores in the state due to Covid-19.  But this morning he was forced to change his tune!  Murphy called a press briefing and announced that he would be reversing his decision in response to the guidelines set out by the Department of Homeland Security, .

The guidelines, put out by the Trump administration on Saturday afternoon, were a combined effort of the Department of Homeland Security, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and several other national level security agencies.  It was their official position that retail gun stores and firearms manufacturing were ‘essential to infrastructure.’

At a press conference held this morning, Murphy implied that he wasn’t happy with the decision.  Still, he admitted that he was going to abide by the recommendations.  He said, “It wouldn’t be my definition but that’s the definition at the federal level and I didn’t get a vote on that.”

He further stipulated that in order to accommodate ‘social distancing’, gun stores could only serve customers “by appointment only and under limited hours.”

Went For The Jugular On Guns

His Executive Order 107 was announced last Saturday, shutting down all gun stores in the state–while leaving liquor stores open.  Now, we have no problem with leaving the liquor stores open–heck, we don’t think a Governor has the constitutional authority to close a business at all!  But still, it’s ironic that somehow Phil Murphy thinks that people need access to liquor, but denies them a right that they’re actually promised in the constitution.

Meanwhile, gun store owners in New Jersey might have already missed the boom in sales thanks to Murphy’s heavy-handed anti-gun decision.  And what’s worse, gun owners in the state had no access to purchase a gun at all!

Thanks to another of Governor Murphy’s draconian gun control laws, New Jersey residents weren’t even able to purchase guns over the internet.  Since 2018, New Jersey law has required that all guns be purchased through a licensed dealer–and once those were ordered closed, residents had no other options.

Wrong For Fifteen Different Reasons!

While we’re sorry for the gun store owners and lost income, we’re outraged at the helpless Americans who were left defenseless thanks to Murphy’s egotistical, leftist edicts.  Imagine thinking that as a puny governor you have the authority to overrule the constitution of the United States!  We’re happy that he got the wake-up call he needed–and we hope New Jersey residents respond to his gun control efforts by doubling the number of guns already in New Jersey!