By Tom Bell, The Associated Press
HAMILTON, N.J. (AP) - New Jersey has one of the toughest bans on assault weapons in the nation, but officials are worried that the guns might become more easily available to criminals in the state now that the federal ban on selling such weapons has expired.
Gov. James E. McGreevey signed an executive order Monday creating a task force to look into legislative and legal ways to keep assault weapons off the streets of New Jersey.
Assault weapons are guns capable of firing up to hundreds of rounds per minute and firing them farther than rifles or handguns.
The federal ban expired Monday after 10 years because Congress did not act to renew it. Republican leaders in Congress said there was no public call for renewing the law. McGreevey, a Democrat, characterized the inaction as an abandonment of police officers who must confront criminals with the powerful weapons.
“It’s literally insane that we don’t do anything to protect their lives,” McGreevey said.
State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes said the bullets fired by assault weapons can penetrate the protective vests worn by police officers.
“They make police armor very, very vulnerable,” Fuentes said.
One in five officers killed in the line of duty is killed with an assault weapon, according to FBI statistics.
Law enforcement officials said it would be easy for someone from New Jersey to buy the weapons from out-of-state dealers or by using straw buyers - those with clean criminal records who buy guns legitimately and then sell them to others. Only six other states ban the sale of assault weapons.
Attorney General Peter C. Harvey will put together the New Jersey task force. He said the state would try to strengthen compacts on gun sales with neighboring states and that legal action against weapons dealers and manufacturers would be considered.
“Gun dealers have to evaluate their own exposures,” Harvey said.
New Jersey’s ban on assault weapons was enacted in 1990 and is not affected by the lapse of the federal law. The expiration means sales can resume of 19 different weapons, including the AK-47 assault rifle and Uzi submachine gun.
New Jersey’s law limits the magazines or clips that hold bullets for guns to 15 rounds. The expiration of the federal law also ended a limit of 10-round magazines for semiautomatic weapons.
Bob Smile, assistant manager of Harry’s Army-Navy store in Yardville, said the lifting of the federal ban would mean nothing to New Jersey’s legal gun owners because of the strict state ban.
“It’s not really like everybody’s real excited because were not going to see a difference here,” Smile said.