Above: Gottheimer rallies for commonsense gun safety measures following the U.S. District Court’s decision to strike down New Jersey’s AR-15 ban.

HACKENSACK, NJ — Today, Monday, August 5, 2024, U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5), joined lawmakers, law enforcement, and local advocates to rally for commonsense gun safety measures, following a U.S. District Court decision to strike down New Jersey’s ban on AR-15 rifles. Gottheimer promised to fight the Court’s decision and sent a letter to Speaker Johnson, urging him to hold a vote on commonsense, bipartisan gun safety legislation that would protect our communities and save lives.

Video of Gottheimer’s announcement can be found here.

According to Everytown, New Jersey averages 435 firearm deaths and 1,265 firearm injuries a year. Guns are tied for the second-leading cause of death among children and teens in New Jersey. In 2023, more than 40,000 people across our country died because of gun violence. So far this year, there have been more than 320 mass shootings, an average of more than one per day. The District Court’s decision to strike down the AR-15 ban increases the risk of deadly mass shootings, as the AR-15 rifle was involved in more than half of the United States’s deadliest mass shootings. 

Gottheimer Urged Speaker Johnson to Bring the Following Commonsense Gun Safety Measures to the House Floor for a Vote:

• The Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2023, which would ensure that background checks are conducted on nearly every gun purchase — closing loopholes that allow criminals and those with mental illnesses to illegally purchase guns.
• The Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2023, which would close the “Charleston Loophole,” which allows firearms sales to proceed after three days even if a background check has not been completed. 
• The Assault Weapons Ban of 2023, which would ban the sale of certain semi-automatic weapons, including the AR-15 rifle, and high-capacity gun magazines capable of holding more than 15 rounds of ammunition. This law would reinstitute the life-saving assault weapons ban that originally passed in 1994.

Gottheimer, a member of the House’s Gun Violence Prevention Task Force and Co-Chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus, worked across the aisle in 2018 to strengthen the federal background check system and in 2022 to craft and pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. That law, the greatest expansion of gun safety in three decades, strengthened background checks for juveniles and those with mental health conditions, gave states the resources they need to enforce red flag laws, invested in children and family mental health services, cracked down on gun trafficking, and closed the boyfriend loophole, protecting survivors of domestic violence.

“Today, in the wake of this awful decision, I’m renewing my call for Congress to advance some commonsense gun safety measures. This isn’t a time to play politics, people’s lives are literally at stake,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5). “Even on the darkest days, I remain optimistic, that our better angels will prevail, and we will come together, across party lines, to pass these bills and keep our children safe. We have no other choice.”

“There are common sense steps we can take to keep our families and our communities safe. We need to raise the federal minimum age to purchase a weapon. We must ensure that universal background checks are done. And, we must create a federal waiting period when purchasing a gun. There is no reason anyone should be able to buy a gun in the next 30 minutes,” said Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella. “On behalf of all Bergen County law enforcement, I am proud to stand here today with Congressman Gottheimer and so many of our zealous advocates to advocate for commonsense action that is desperately needed to stop senseless gun violence.”

“As someone that represents the million people here in Bergen County, it’s my duty to make sure that they are safe. And that we do everything in our power to make them safe,” said Bergen County Executive James Tedesco. “We believe that [the] Congressman’s legislation will help ensure the safety of the people here in Bergen County. It’s incumbent upon all of us to stand together and say, these weapons of assault and of war are not allowed to be in the hands of the people.”

“Despite the alarming frequency of mass shootings and the clear evidence of the devastation caused by assault weapons, there are still steps we can take to make our community safer,” said Bergen County Commissioner Chairwoman Germaine Ortiz. “I am proud to stand here with Congressman Josh Gottheimer and other gun violence prevention champions to advocate for these commonsense measures. We must act now to protect our communities, our children, and our future…I want to thank again all my colleagues that are standing here today, especially Josh, who’s our voice in Washington. You do an incredible job.”

“We’re grateful to our legislators in our counties and in the State Assembly and Senate who continue to fight for gun sense. And to our federal representatives, including Congressman Gottheimer, who faced the Sisyphean task of trying to convince fellow Congressmen that our kids’ lives and our community’s safety are worth overcoming partisan division,” said Moms Demand Action Volunteer Larissa Mendez Downes. “The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which the Congressman helped pass in 2022 was a crucial first step. And, we can do more.”

Additionally, Gottheimer continues to champion the bipartisan ALYSSA Act, which will require schools to install silent panic alarms in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, and worked to pass bipartisan legislation through the House that strengthened background checks.

Gottheimer was joined by Bergen County Executive James Tedesco, Bergen County Commissioner Chairwoman Germaine Ortiz, Senator Gordon Johnson, Assemblywoman Ellen Park, Assemblywoman Shama Haider, Bergen County Sheriff Anthony Cureton, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella, Moms Demand Action Advocate Larissa Mendez Downes, Students Demand Action Advocate Elise Tao, and March for Our Lives Advocate Elena Perez.

Below: Gottheimer rallies for commonsense gun safety measures following the U.S. District Court’s decision to strike down New Jersey’s AR-15 ban.

Gottheimer’s remarks as prepared for delivery are below:

Good morning and thank you for joining us today. I’m here today to address a critical issue that touches every family, county, community, and zip code in our country: gun violence.

Last week, we received news that the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey struck down New Jersey’s ban on the AR-15 rifle. This ruling was galling, appalling, and just plain wrong. Yet, it wasn’t surprising. Folks, we’ve seen this movie before. Courts across our country, including the highest court in the land, have chipped away at comprehensive gun safety measures. But, we cannot — and will not — give up. Today, in the wake of this awful decision, I’m renewing my call for Congress to advance some commonsense gun safety measures. This isn’t a time to play politics, people’s lives are literally at stake.

School starts in a few weeks. That’s why we have students here in particular. And, these issues for parents and for students will be front and center. We do an event every year. The bell rings, and we’re excited for a new school year, but I think about how my kids and every other kid have to go through drills. Every year. I had a parent with a kid in school for their first year and called me, saying, “I’m reading about the fact that early on, they’re going to have to do a drill, a safety drill for gun violence. They’re going to have to go into the stall and stand on the toilets.” I said, “I know. My children have been doing it for years.” It’s out of control. And, it’s something that we can stop. That’s the crazy part.

Here’s the ugly truth: our country faces a gun violence epidemic. More than 40,000 people across America died because of gun violence in 2023. Moms. Dads. Sons and daughters. Lives cut short. Families torn apart. According to Everytown, New Jersey averages 435 firearm deaths a year. That’s the exact number of people that serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

1,265 people are wounded in Jersey each year — the prosecutor and the sheriff, both of whom join us today, see these awful scenes every week: shots fired in our neighborhoods, in our parks, and even near playgrounds and schools. Far too many of our youth have been impacted by gun violence. In fact, guns are tied for the second-leading cause of death among children and teens in New Jersey. It’s a staggering statistic. 

Almost every year that I’ve been in Congress has been marked by a devastating mass shooting — Las Vegas, Parkland, El Paso, Oxford, Uvalde, Lewiston shootings. Unfortunately, I could go on and on — not to mention the gun violence in our cities and our neighborhoods every single day. So far this year, there have been 331 mass shootings in the United States, more than one per day. 

The common denominator in these tragedies is the AR-15. They’ve been used in more than half of our country’s deadliest mass shootings. These are weapons of war, plain and simple. An AR-15 can fire 45 rounds per minute. When modified with a bump stock, that jumps to between 400 and 800 rounds per minute. We have to worry about bump stocks again because just last month, the Supreme Court decision struck down a Trump-era ban on them. 

Those numbers sound abstract, so let’s put them in context. An AR-15 could wipe out this entire room, about ten times over, in the time it takes me to deliver this speech. The rounds from these guns are so powerful, that if shot directly at a person’s chest, they would tear through skin, lung tissue, nerves, and cause massive bleeding. In Uvalde, the police had to ask parents for a DNA swab because they couldn’t recognize many of the children killed in the classrooms by an AR-15. Some claim to use these guns to hunt, really?, but after about three bullets, you won’t have any deer left to bring home. I support sportsman hunting, but you don’t need an AR-15 to shoot a deer.

If you don’t believe me, take it from my colleague Congressman Brian Mast, a veteran who actually used weapons like this on the battlefield. In his words, the Army used it “because it was the most lethal — the best for killing our enemies.” He called for a ban on AR-15s in 2018 because these deadly weapons make our communities less safe.

For decades, New Jersey has been a leader in taking AR-15s off the street. Our state assault weapons ban dates back to 1990, and the national assault weapons ban dates back to 1994, under the leadership of President Clinton and then-Senator Joe Biden. It made sense. It was supported by law enforcement then, and it saved countless lives. And yet, with the stroke of a pen, the federal District Court wiped away years of advocacy and hard work.

Let me be clear: I believe this decision is wrong — on the merits and on the morals. I understand we have a Second Amendment right in this country, and I don’t have a problem with people owning a gun for sport, to hunt or, if properly trained, to protect themselves.  But, no one has a right to an assault rifle, designed for war, to kill a deer or shoot a clay pigeon. They don’t need bump stocks. No one needs high-capacity ammunition clips that can hold a hundred bullets The same way that no one has a right to evade a background check.

I also believe that we have a right to live free from gun violence. I believe we have the right to live free from active shooter drills where kids learn to hide on toilets and barricade themselves behind desks. I believe we have the right to attend concerts and games in stadiums, go to a Starbucks or a Wal-Mart without having to locate the nearest exit, in case a shooter comes in. I believe we, as parents, have the right to live every single day without fear that our kids are going to get massacred by an AR-15. What about those rights?

When the Second Amendment was written nearly two-hundred-fifty years ago, the average revolutionary musket fired three rounds a minute. You would, in fact, need a well-regulated militia to do the same kind of damage that an eighteen-year-old kid can by himself with an AR-15 in 2024.

I urge the Court of Appeals to reverse course and overturn this god awful decision by the District Court of New Jersey. We have the right to live safely. But, I’m not just going to cross my fingers. As this issue plays out in the Courts, I will work around-the-clock and across the aisle to get commonsense gun safety measures signed into law.

As hard as it is to believe, we actually got Democrats and Republicans to agree on commonsense gun safety and school safety measures, just a few years ago. We passed some small improvements to the federal background check system, working across party lines, in 2018. Then, in 2022, after the devastating shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where twenty-one innocent souls lost their lives, I introduced my Common Sense Strategy to Combat Gun Violence and Ensure School Safety. I was joined by many of the leaders here today. Major parts of that strategy resulted in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, legislation that, as Co-Chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, I was immensely proud to help pass in the House and get signed into law. This was bipartisan gun safety legislation because the idea that we can’t actually get this done in a divided government is wrong. We just have to have the will to do it and not be afraid to do it. People have to have courage. We need to do it again now, we have more to do now, we cannot wait.

That law, the greatest expansion of gun safety in three decades, strengthened background checks for juveniles and those with mental health conditions, gave states the resources they need to enforce red flag laws, invested in children and family mental health services, cracked down on gun trafficking, and closed the boyfriend loophole, ensuring we stood up for survivors of domestic violence. It was a huge deal, but the bottom line is this: progress takes time but you can’t rest up on your laurels. We still have a crisis. If we don’t do more, shame on us.

I laud all of my colleagues that chose country over party to pass this watershed legislation. And now, I’m urging them to do it again. We have to do more to safeguard our communities from gun violence, and we cannot wait for another mass shooting to come to our senses.

Today, I’m sending a letter to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, calling on him urgently to bring three key pieces of commonsense gun safety legislation to the floor that will keep guns out of the hands of criminals, terrorists, those with mental illness, and domestic abusers — and most importantly, save lives.

First, I’m an original cosponsor of the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, which would ensure that background checks are conducted on nearly every gun purchase. We can’t have loopholes where people with prior convictions or a mental illness can buy a gun in a private transaction and evade a background check. 

Second, the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2023, another bill I’m helping drive, would close the “Charleston Loophole,” which allows firearms sales to proceed after three days even if a background check has not been completed. Given the influx of gun purchases, our default can’t just be to allow criminals and those with mental illness evade a waiting period. 

Perhaps most important of all is the Assault Weapons Ban, which would ban the sale of certain semi-automatic weapons, including the AR-15 rifle, and high-capacity gun magazines capable of holding more than 15 rounds of ammunition. Thirty years ago, we passed a temporary Federal Assault Weapons Ban, and it had a tremendous impact. A study from 2021 found that it prevented as many as eleven mass shootings in a decade. It would’ve saved more than 330 lives if we’d kept it going through 2021. Let’s bring it up for a vote on September 9th and see where our policymakers stand on this life-saving measure.

We shouldn’t have to wait until the next mass shooting for Washington to snap back into its senses and consider commonsense, bipartisan gun safety measures. We’ve seen the blood that won’t wash out of the classroom floors in Parkland, the utter carnage in Las Vegas, and the heartbroken parents in Uvalde. Isn’t that enough motivation to act? If that isn’t enough, I ask my colleagues, how many senseless deaths will it take to get these pieces of legislation to the floor?

Finally, bringing it back to Jersey, I want to praise Phil Murphy for his years of fighting for commonsense gun safety, along with leaders in the State Legislature. Every future Governor of New Jersey must continue to fight these awful weapons of war. Our state has led the way so far, and we must continue to be a leader. This ban has the support of parents, of law enforcement, and all people with common sense. Because of this decision, New Jersey will be less safe. This decision was wrong, and we should — and will — fight this decision all the way to the Supreme Court. That’s a promise.

Twenty-five years ago, I was in the Oval Office, just hours after the tragedy at Columbine. Thirteen people were killed. Twenty injured. Children literally hanging out the school windows, bloody, lifeless. I thought for sure that day, as we cried with the President and the families of the victims, that we would take immediate action and pass commonsense gun and school safety legislation for our schools and our communities. But, here we are, twenty-five years later.  

President Clinton said that day, “we see through a glass, darkly.” Meaning, as scripture says, there are some things that we just can’t explain. I can’t explain why twenty-five years later, we’re still having this conversation. I can’t explain it, I don’t understand it. I don’t understand how you can watch what’s gone on and think it’s okay — when the rest of the world figured this out, and we haven’t.

You have my word: I will do everything in my power to make sure we don’t have to wait another twenty-five years to get these critical measures passed.  I will continue to fight in Congress to get these pieces of legislation over the finish line, along with my bipartisan ALYSSA Act, named for Alyssa Alhadeff who died in Parkland, which ensures our children are safe in schools if there’s ever an active shooter. Even on the darkest days, I remain optimistic, that our better angels will prevail, and we will come together, across party lines, to pass these bills and keep our children safe. We have no other choice. 

By working together — lawmakers, lawyers, law enforcement, and advocates — we can address the great scourge of gun violence that looms over the greatest country in the world. I know that, if we keep speaking truth to power, our best days will always be ahead of us.

Thank you. May God bless you, may God bless our families, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.

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