TRENTON, N.J. – Gun control advocates are hailing New Jersey's release of near-real-time firearms trafficking data as a trailblazing use of federal information, but Second Amendment advocates and skeptical Republicans question whether the report amounts to a way around a federal limitation on the release of some data.
Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy unveiled the data Tuesday as part of a campaign promise to strengthen New Jersey's already-tight gun laws. The colorful, four-page report uses what gun control supporters say is a novelty: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives gun-trace data for the first quarter of 2018 to show that 77 percent of guns used in crimes in New Jersey come from out of state.
The publication appears to be the first time a state has taken advantage of the ATF data with such speed, according to experts at the gun safety Giffords organization and the Brady Campaign and Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Cities, most notably Chicago, have used the ATF data in reports, but those came out annually. New Jersey has pledged to post monthly data and quarterly data based on ATF reports.
“New Jersey stepped up, said we have this data, we get it from ATF and we're going do the work to gather, visualize and then publicize this,” David Chipman, a former ATF agent and the senior policy adviser at Giffords, the organization named for gun-attack victim and former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
The data release comes amid a national conversation surrounding gun control in the aftermath of fatal shootings at a high school in Parkland, Florida, and as Democrats push for tighter gun laws while the Republican-led Congress has not passed any such measures.
In New Jersey, Murphy and the Democrat-led Legislature are pushing a package of six
