MICHELLE BRUNETTI POST, Atlantic City Press
State Sen. Michael Testa, R-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic, wants gun stores added to the list of essential retail businesses that are allowed to remain open during the COVID-19 crisis, citing self-protection as police officers become ill.
“People have a constitutional right to bear arms and to defend themselves and their families during these uncertain times,” Testa said in a news release Wednesday. “Gun stores should never have been closed in the first place.”
Gov. Phil Murphy adjusted the list of businesses that could stay open Tuesday, adding bike repair shops, mobile phone stores and garden centers as essential businesses like food stores and pharmacies.
(AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
“Now that more police departments are reporting officers sick with the coronavirus, it’s increasingly clear that understaffed law enforcement agencies may not have the ability to respond immediately when a family needs help,” Testa said. “Gov. Murphy can help protect New Jerseyans by opening gun stores and allowing citizens to protect themselves if needed.”
Pennsylvania has allowed gun stores to reopen, Testa said.
“It’s crazy that the governor thinks liquor stores are essential, but stores that enhance personal safety are not,” he said.
Testa also called on Murphy to restore the full functionality of the New Jersey National Instant Criminal Background System website to allow New Jersey firearms dealers to submit new requests to the system. The New Jersey State Police NICS Unit directed the vendor that operates the system to turn off the NICS Online Services for submitting NICS transactions Saturday.
Reopening the system “would also address the needs of customers who had transactions in the pipeline prior to the coronavirus crisis who have been stuck in limbo due to the governor’s executive orders,” Testa said
Related news stories:
How coronavirus has sent gun and ammo sales through the roof (CNN)
Are Guns ‘Essential’ in the Virus Era? Americans Stock Up as States Differ (New York Times)
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