Bill Burton, former deputy press secretary for the Obama administration, talks with Rachel Maddow about whether new gun safety bills awaiting a signature from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will make it into law or if Christie's concern about being primaried from the right will yield vetoes.
Republican Governor Chris Christie rejected a gun-control measure passed by the New Jersey legislature, sending it back to lawmakers and saying it was so broadly written it would ban target rifles and other weapons not used in crimes.
Citing earlier versions of the bill, Christie said it had been written to bar one specific type of long-range rifle, the Barrett .50 caliber. Instead, he said the measure he received was so sweeping it would criminalize ownership of all .50 caliber weapons and ammunition, including the $10,000, 35-pound (16-kilogram) guns used by sport shooters.
“The wide scope of this total ban, therefore, will not further public safety, but only interfere with lawful recreational pastimes,” the governor said in his veto message. The former federal prosecutor said it would turn law-abiding sportsmen and women into criminals.
He called on lawmakers to make “commonsense improvements” in state laws to deter criminals.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ted Bunker in Boston at tbunker1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at smerelman@bloomberg.net.
RNC says they will not hold debates on NBC and CNN
The Rachel Maddow Show August 16, 2013
The Republican National Committee voted to ban CNN and NBC from hosting presidential primary debates in 2016 because the networks are planning Hillary Clinton biopics. Abby Huntsman, co-host of "The Cycle," joins Rachel Maddow to talk about how much of a show this will be and why the move will only embrace the right's most boisterous wing.