chris christie signed that one and nine other measures that he called common sense gun reforms at the time that he signed them. he left five other gun-related bills still sitting on his desk without him making a decision about them. and they include the one about whether or not it should be legal for this military weapon to be sold to civilians including 18-year-olds in new jersey. because it is legal to have those guns in new jersey now. even though new jersey, the most densely populated state in the nation, has a pretty progressive history on guns overall. new jersey was the first state in the country to enact an assault weapons ban back in 1990. well now two former new jersey governors, one democratic former governor, one republican former governor, christine todd whitman, are urging chris christie to go ahead and sign the remaining five gun reform bills as well saying, regardless of politics and party, new jersey residents have always shown unwavering support for common sense gun
of liquor. it s not a garden variety bullet. a .50 caliber sniper rifle is not a garden variety gun. it s a military weapon used by military snipers to kill from over a mile away. it s said to have a range of 2,000 yards. from closer ranges, it is an effective military weapon against even some armored vehicles. a few years back, 60 minutes showed .50 caliber rifles making short work of steel plate armor at several hundred yards. early brochures for the .50 caliber sniper rifle marketed its specific military uses. the model 82 a1 is the most cost effective means of disabling or destroying some of the most sophisticated threats that face your forces. it has the ability to engage the enemy at ranges far beyond those at which small arms can return fire. oh, and by the way, it s good for shooting down planes. and i quote, the compressor sections of jet engines or the
shots after that. reporter: and you re a gun enthusiast, you fired an ar-15 before. you know the gun. you believe that s what he and an ar-15 is the m-16, the civilian version of the m-16 and it looks very much like a military weapon, yes? yes, that s exactly what it looks like. reporter: how can you be so sure it was that gun? i was close enough to see it from behind and he lowered it and he started walking slowly to the other end of campus. so, you could see it. i m not 100%, but i m pretty sure it was the ar-15. reporter: how many gunshots did you hear total? over three. i heard at least three. i don t, you know, remember exactly. i was trying to, you know, get people out and, you know, try to get people to calm down. and then i went to try to get one of my friends out of class. reporter: you ve just spoken to one of your friends who is still locked down on campus. yes. reporter: what did they say? she is in the gym area and they have it completely locked down.
sort of vernier of assault weapons, a stock, and looks like a military weapon and bunch it altogether, not differentiating is it an automatic, semi ougautomatic, these are differences and magazine clips, what s the difference between a hundred rounds, 30 rounds, ten rounds, differences they re trying to make, the right to bear arms is messy, it s difficult. background checks should we have them, especially in light of the mental health issues at newtown. that s where the debate should be. if we re having common sense issues, let s quit going off the guns and talk about how we can look into the background, criminal record, mental illness of people who maybe shouldn t be owning certain firearms in light of what happened. megyn: they are looking at that, but it s clearly been at page two at best at the white e one is guns.
they are for the assault weapons ban. and everyday americans, we do not wand to live in military-style, armed society. i don t want to live in the a country that has a, you know, a military weapon on every street corner by every yahoo! walking down the street. megyn: john, i will give you a chance to respond. i want to ask you, some say the ban in place from 94 to 04 was largely feckless. it was ineffective because it was feckless and that if we re going to have gun control again, we need to put some teeth into it. they want to make something more forceful than what we had in place. well the advocates who put it in place claimed it was having effect. you can look at statements by dianne feinstein or chuck schumer when it was about to sunset in 2004. both of them as well as many others predicted huge increases in murders and robbery rates that would occur if is sunset in 2004. well it sunset in 2004 and