Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy renewed his calls for more gun control legislation on Monday, following a weekend of gun violence in Buffalo, New York, and other cities across the country.
In an emotional tirade at a media event in Hackensack, the governor also chastised conservatives and other gun rights advocates for mourning gun violence while still standing up for the Second Amendment rights of Americans, telling them to “shove their thoughts and prayers” where the sun doesn’t shine.
“Cue the expected and pitiful expressions of thoughts and prayers from those held so powerfully in the grip of the gun lobby,” Murphy said in response to the race-based mass shooting in Buffalo, where an 18-year-old white supremacist killed ten innocent black people at a Tops supermarket and wounded three others.
Murphy then lumped conservatives into a fringe far-right camp that espouses the so-called “Replacement Theory,” which suggests that minorities are “replacing” white people in the U.S.
“And as it pertains to Buffalo, cue the hurried backpedaling from the right-wing talking heads and politicians who have so freely and openly peddled the garbage ‘replacement conspiracy’ — I can’t bring myself to call it a theory — and who can’t possibly believe that the words they’ve poisoned our airwaves and rotted our civic dialogue with could actually come home to roost,” the governor said.
“I think every single one of them knows where they can shove their thoughts and prayers,” he added.
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The governor said that “it is well past time for outrage and action” and for Congress to “step up and pass real nationwide gun safety legislation.”
Murphy also expressed concern over an impending Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, where justices are set to decide whether or not a New York law that effectively prohibits residents from receiving a concealed carry permit for self-defense is constitutional.
The Supreme Court decision is expected to dramatically affect gun laws nationwide.
In New Jersey, Murphy hopes to pass a radical gun control package that would, according to NJ.com, “change how firearm owners in the state are required to store their guns, ban the future sales of .50 caliber guns in the state, increase the age people can buy shotguns and rifles in the state from 18 to 21, and mandate gun dealers in the state keep logs of ammunition sales, among other moves.”
Critics, however, have argued that the new proposals — like almost every gun control proposal pushed by Democrats in the aftermath of shooting tragedies — would do little to stem violence. Rather, they would only accomplish placing a greater burden on law-abiding gun owners, hampering their ability to protect themselves and others.