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It is clearer than ever, now that the Third Circuit has upheld New Jersey's limit on firearms magazines containing more than 10 rounds, that peoples' widely discussed “Second Amendment rights” are not nearly as sweeping as some of the public discourse would have us believe (Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs v. New Jersey, No. 18-3170). Uninformed public discussions have led many members of the public to believe that the Second Amendment guarantee is close to unlimited. This is a dangerous misunderstanding.

Gov. Phil Murphy and members of the Legislature have moved expeditiously to exercise the state's still-broad authority to curb gun violence. In April of this year, the governor signed Executive Order 21 requiring the State Police to publish data related to guns used in crimes in New Jersey (https://www.njsp.org/njgunstat/). Early analysis shows that more than 75 percent of guns used in crimes here were purchased out of state, largely from neighboring Pennsylvania.

A lesser-known initiative was to include funding in the state budget to establish a Center On Gun Violence Research here in New Jersey. After a bidding process for receipt of the funds, Rutgers University was chosen to house this important new research activity. Research into gun violence, for which Congress has provided no funds, and has specifically banned the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from using funds “to advocate or promote gun control,” is an extremely important element of the fight to protect public health. In contrast to the willful ignorance at the federal level, the multi-disciplinary center at Rutgers will deploy public health, criminal justice, and legal expertise, among other disciplines, to develop new understanding of the causes of, and possible responses to, the epidemic of gun violence in our nation. We look forward to the results this new initiative can achieve.