New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie would not need to look at slashing state pensions, while Democrat lawmakers are talking tax hikes, to make up for a projected $2.75 billion revenue shortfall over the next two fiscal years if only the Garden State was more attractive to gun owning tourists and firearms manufacturers, the Second Amendment Foundation suggested today.
“New Jersey tax collections are down,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. “That might not be so if the state were friendlier to firearms businesses and gun owners in general. Many New Jersey gun owners are moving out of state to start new lives where there are ten amendments in the Bill of Rights. Gun manufacturing companies won’t go near the place as they plan their moves from other anti-gun gulags like neighboring New York, because New Jersey lawmakers have made their state just as toxic.”
Reuters reported this week that Gov. Christie just learned of an $807 million revenue shortfall for the current fiscal year. April tax collections fell “far short” of expectations, the news agency revealed.
“If New Jersey were friendlier toward gun owners,” Gottlieb observed, “the state might be able to attract lots more tourists to such places as the Jersey Shore and Atlantic City. But firearms rights activists refuse to enter the state. It’s not an organized boycott, but in many ways, it might just as well be.
“New Jersey lawmakers better snap to and accept the notion that law-abiding gun owners should not be treated like criminals,” he added. “But while this treatment continues, their brother and sister gun owners from other states will treat the Garden State like a noxious weed patch, spending their money elsewhere.
“What is really disturbing about this,” Gottlieb concluded, “is that Democrats are trying to blame Christie for the situation. But it is the Legislature, which is controlled by Democrats, that has set both the fiscal tone and anti-gun agenda for the state. They’re to blame, nobody else, and they are the ones who can change the situation.”
