NJ Lawmaker Seeks To Allow Judges, Legislators To Obtain Gun Carry Permits

TRENTON, N.J. (CBS) - A North Jersey legislator who has tried for two decades to expand the rights of gun owners, to no avail, is trying a new angle.

He's looking to allow judges and legislators to be permitted to carry handguns in public.

Bergen County Republican State Senator Gerald Cardinale says the current rules to obtain a carry permit, which effectively limit their use to security personnel and police, are far too stringent.

It comes down to "justifiable need" and these days, he believes, elected state officials and appointed jurists have that need.

"Criminals know, for instance, when a judge would be on the way home from the courthouse, the criminal would know on the way home that the judge was vulnerable," Cardinale told KYW Newsradio. "The same thing for a legislator."

They'd need to be certified in proper use of a weapon.

Cardinale won't predict the chances for success on this proposal, although he believes an objective review by his colleagues in Trenton should prove the need for the change.

Besides he says, "I would have loved to have a much more reasonable definition such as they have in Florida, such as they have in Pennsylvania, such as they have in Connecticut."

Cardinale says he was getting heat not just from gun control advocates, but some who think limiting expansion rights this way smacks of elitism.

Late in the week, he added a companion bill to his proposal that would grant carry permits to any licensed gun owner who passes the same stringent background checks judges now go through.