While Governor Christie should be commended for his stance on school choice and a voucher program for New Jersey’s public schools, his insistence on gun control, coupled with the sky-rocketing crime rate in cities like Newark and Camden, deserves no praise. From CNN to the Cato Institute, history, research, and scientific studies have confirmed that gun control only controls the gun ownership of law-abiding citizens, not the criminals.
Residents throughout the Garden State have called for the National Guard to bring law and order back to cities struggling with open drug dealing and rising murder rates. If Governor Christie will not expand gun ownership, then he may have to seek help from other unlikely sources. Hamilton, New Jersey just banned pro wrestling within its city limits. Perhaps all those grapplers should take up arms and patrol the urban ghettoes in the Garden State. Governor Christie is large enough to be a sumo wrestler, if he wanted to.
Camden has disbanded the city police to bring in the county police department, citing the rising salary, overtime, and pension costs eating away at the city budget. Let’s hope that a stronger police presence will bring down the crime and bring up sense of safety and security that New Jerseyans should expect from their city, county, and state leaders.
Cutting taxes and spending are important, but so is the safety of the citizenry. Governor Christie and his legislative caucus would be wise not forget this fundamental role of government to protect our right.