NJ to Wyoming: Butt Out of Our Gun Laws

Star-Ledger slams legal meddling with concealed-carry law
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 19, 2014 1:50 AM CST
NJ to Wyoming: Butt Out of Our Gun Laws
Guns cover tables in front of Camden Mayor Dana Redd, center left, and New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa, center at podium, after a gun buyback event.   (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

New Jersey's biggest newspaper isn't happy about Wyoming's attempt to meddle in its gun laws. It seems Wyoming is leading a coalition of 19 states supporting a man's Supreme Court challenge to New Jersey's concealed-carry law, and the Star-Ledger think the least populated state in the union should "butt out." States "have broad powers to set gun policy, and in ours, a strong majority supports strict laws," the paper says in a blistering editorial, explaining that most people in the state don't want to worry that "the guy they’re fighting with over a parking spot might be packing heat."

"Do they want us meddling in their gun laws?" the paper asks, noting that Wyoming's loose gun laws are a threat to New Jersey because they make it easy for criminals to bring guns east. Wyoming ranked 6th in gun deaths per capita in 2010, the paper says, concluding that "the problem isn’t our laws. It’s yours." Wyoming's governor, however, says his state is supporting the New Jersey man's challenge to the state's requirement for concealed-carry permit holders to prove a "justifiable need" because the case "impacts the right to keep and bear arms outside of the home," the AP reports. (More Wyoming stories.)

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