“New Jersey’s second-largest city is adopting a novel approach to gun control by requiring weapons-makers bidding on municipal contracts to answer questions about their positions on gun safety issues,” the AP reports. “Jersey City Mayor [and Marine] Steven Fulop says he wants municipalities to use their purchasing power to influence America’s gun-safety conversation. The bid specification going out Wednesday — for roughly $200,000 worth of guns and $150,000 in ammunition — includes six questions measuring vendors’ gun safety record. One asks whether the manufacturer would commit to preventing its weapons from appearing in violent video games. Another asks what the company does to combat illegal gun trafficking.” Here are all six questions, via the Mayor’s editorial at huffingtonpost.com . . .
Jersey City will be asking all bidders the following six socially responsible questions:
– What do you do to combat illegal gun trafficking and illegal gun crime?
– Do you manufacturer and sell assault weapons for civilian use?
– Do you agree not to sell certain models of firearms for civilian use?
– Are you requiring your dealers to conduct background checks?
– Do you fund research related to gun violence and smart gun technology?
– Will you commit to prohibiting your brand name from being used in violent video games?
God knows how Jersey City’s gonna weight the answers. But we know to whose tune they’re dancing. The AP reveals that . . .
Mandi Perlmutter, who leads the New Jersey chapter of the national gun-safety group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, met with Fulop to develop the idea. She called it conversation-changing.
“This is an enormous step forward for New Jersey and an example for mayors across the country,” she said.
Kim Russell, a spokeswoman for the national Moms Demand Action group, founded in the days after the Newtown massacre, said no other city has gone at the problem the way Jersey City has. The closest other local governments have come, she said, is selling investments in companies that support gun manufacturing.
So Jersey City is ready, willing and able to sacrifice officer and public safety on the altar of political correctness. And Moms Demand Action call gun rights advocates bullies. Go figure.
Meanwhile, the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Lawrence Keane says manufacturers will refuse to answer the “gun safety” questions. More’s the pity, but I think he’s wrong. Especially if MDA forces other municipalities to follow suit.