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Democratic lawmakers want to take the state's tight gun control laws and expand them outside of New Jersey's borders. There's new legislation that would ban state-sponsored travel to any states that don't require their residents to obtain a permits before they purchase a firearm. The goal is to send a message to the National Rifle Association, said State Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, the bill's sponsor. "Fighting the NRA on the basis logic and rational thinking has not worked," Weinberg, D-Bergen, said. "So I think the thing that might work is fighting them with their pocketbook."

I received a link to the above video from several gun-rights advocates, including Scott Bach of the New Jersey Association of Rifle and Pistolc Clubs (see press release here). It's a recording of the end of a Thursday meeting of the state Senate Budget Committee at which several gun-control bills were considered. The first voice is that of Chairman Paul Sarlo. After he wraps up the meeting, it sounds like someone says "We needed a bill to confiscate, confiscate, confiscate." As to just who that someone is, it's difficult to tell. It could be anyone who was near the head...

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D) is working to change New Jersey’s laws to make smart guns available — 13 years after a measure that would require them was put into place. A law written by Weinberg and passed in 2002 would require that New Jersey dealers only offer “smart guns,” which are weapons that activate only when their owners’ fingerprints are detected, within 30 months of such guns coming on the market. The technology exists, but gun dealers throughout the country have resisted offering such guns — for fear of beginning the clock on New Jersey’s law and barring other...

When Mohamed Younes selected "Religious Freedom and Tolerance" as the theme for the American Muslim Union's annual brunch, it was long before New York Rep. Peter King decided to hold hearings on "radical Islam." Younes, president of the union, said the luncheon Sunday at the Glenpointe Marriott in Teaneck came at the right time. "It just happened to be the right subject for the right moment," he said. Younes, who founded the Paterson-based grass-roots organization in the hopes of serving the American Muslim community and promoting equality, told the roughly 500 attendees that religious freedom is a constitutional right. "With...

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America has announced a national expansion that could double the number of abortion clinics it operates in New Jersey from three to six by 2013 and provide a wider array of health care for the tens of thousands of uninsured or low-income people it serves. Although national and state Planned Parenthood officials say it’s too soon to predict how the expansion will unfold, the news arrives as a high-profile political debate unfolds over whether government should pay for family-planning services, which can include abortion. Five of the 58 family-planning clinics in the state have closed...

From an NRA email alert; In a blatant attempt by entrenched New Jersey politicians to strong arm citizens who oppose their re-election, Senator Barbara Buono (D-18) and Senator Loretta Weinberg have introduced legislation which would require certain contributors to "issue advocacy organizations", including the NRA and ANJRPC, to have their names, addresses and their employers' information sent to the government. S2379, if passed, will mandate that any "issue advocacy organization" classified under IRS Code as a 501©(3), 501©(4) or 527 that engages in the election or defeat of any person to state or local elective office; the passage or defeat...

<p>From the HSLDA E-lert Service...</p> <p>A bill that would force New Jersey homeschool children to submit to the same statewide assessment tests required of public school students, and force their parents to give the local school board proof the student had received an annual medical examination, is set to be introduced in the New Jersey legislature this Thursday.</p>

<p>A proposed new law that could have banned the sale or purchase of many muzzleloading rifles and the possession of many shotguns is being pulled from the state Legislature calendar and will not be introduced, said its sponsor.</p> <p>Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) said concerns expressed by hunters is prompting her to yank bill A-3942 less than a month after its introduction. As of Wednesday, the state Legislature Web site listed the bill as remaining active, but Weinberg said she "pulled the bill off the agenda."</p>

<p>Driving will be on the minds of state lawmakers as they convene today in Trenton, where they are scheduled to consider bills that would toughen the definition of drunken driving, ban motorists from using cell phones and mandate cleaner-running cars.</p>