Gun-control advocates and their allies in the state legislature are gearing up for another battle in 2014 in hopes of making New Jersey gun restrictions, already among the toughest in the nation, even more stringent.



Last year, during a tumultuous legislative session following the murder of 20 children in a Newtown, Conn. elementary school, the legislature passed 22 new pieces of gun legislation. About a dozen became law, while the balance were struck down by the governor's veto pen. Advocates for more limits on guns say important legislation was left on the table.

TIMELINE: 2013 was a big year for gun legislation

It's those measures — in particular, a restriction on ammunition magazine size, a ban on .50-caliber rifles, stricter limits on children’s access to firearms and mandatory safety training for gun owners — that will be their focus in the coming year. "Our top priority is a 10-round limit on magazine size," said Bryan Miller, executive director of Heeding God's Call, a faith-based organization focused on preventing gun violence.

"Nobody needs a 15-round ammunition magazine unless they are a domestic terrorist or a gangster," Miller said. "We expect the legislative leadership to get behind this and the governor to see some sense."



In last year's session, the magazine restriction never made it to the governor's desk. Instead, it was the Senate and president Steve Sweeney who stood in its way. The state currently restricts clips to 15 rounds, a limit Sweeney described last year as "effective."

But Miller said he is confident the Senate president is on board with the 10-round limit this time around.

For the families of the children of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, the 10-round magazine has become a rallying cry.

"We do a lot of studying and research and we speak to gun owners and people all

over the political spectrum," said Mark Barden, advocacy director for Sandy Hook Promise whose son Daniel was among the children murdered. "We hear universally

for hunting, home protection and sport shooting that a 10 round magazine is

certainly plenty."

Barden said to back up the claim that the limit would save lives, you need only look to the number of shootings that are halted when the shooter stops to reload.

For their part, Second Amendment advocates say the magazine restriction is arbitrary and does nothing to prevent gun violence. What it does, gun advocates say, is limit only the firepower of those who follow the law.



"For the most part this is the same feel-good, do-nothing legislation that the New Jersey legislature is so fond of sponsoring," said Frank Fiamingo, president of the New Jersey Second Amendment Society. "As usual, the legislation targets the law-abiding gun owner who has purchased a gun legally and does not address the gangs and the career criminals who are committing the crimes."



Likewise the ban on .50 caliber rifles, a weapon gun advocates say is irrelevant to the discussion because it's used only by wealthy hobbyists and has never been used to commit a crime in the state.



Last year, Gov. Chris Christie himself advocated for its ban but later reversed course with a veto of the measure.



The governor hinted that the veto was punishment for Democratic overreach; however, gun-control advocates believe he also was pandering to a New Hampshire pro-guns group that urged its members to contact the Christie and warn him against signing various gun-control measures.



Miller said he's hoping the governor makes good on the ban this year.

"Both houses of the legislature and the governor himself supported the ban prior to passage and then, just to teach Democratic leaders a lesson, he vetoed it," Miller said. "Is this leadership? And who was he really talking to, the citizens of New Jersey or the right wing pro-gunners of New Hampshire."



Mandatory safety training was part of Sweeney's centerpiece bill, passed by both houses of the legislature last year but conditionally vetoed by the governor. The bill would have changed the way the state issues firearms licenses, made background checks instant and included private sales in the law. It also would have required proof of safety training prior to the issuance of a gun license. Training was among the elements altered by the governor's veto. After the conditional veto, Sweeney abandoned the measure.



"It's the most logical of the group," Miller said. "You need safety training to drive a car. Everybody who owns a gun should know how to store it and use it safely."



But Fiamingo said the devil is in the details. If the legislation is aimed at providing free common-sense training on gun storage and other safety factors, his group could back it. The problem, he said, is the parameters are always left out of the bill.



If it's true training and it's provided free, he could back it, Fiamingo said. But if it's just a financial barrier erected to make it harder to obtain a gun permit, he said, it's a non-starter.

Sweeney already has reintroduced the bill in the current session. Asked about specifics of this year's agenda, however, Sweeney issued only a broad comment.



"The governor vetoed common-sense gun-safety reforms, including legislation I sponsored that would have made New Jersey a national model on background checks," he said. "We will be examining these issues again during the new term."



As he was last year, Assemblyman Lou Greenwald is a strong advocate of gun-control measures, including the magazine restriction.



"I made a personal commitment to the families of Newtown that we would not stop fighting, no matter how long it takes until we get the magazine limit passed," Greenwald said. "In talking with the families, they will tell you, the single most important piece of legislation to stop this kind of insanity in the future is that magazine limit."



While gun-control supporters ask "Why not?" when it comes to the magazine-size limit, pro-gun advocates say that's the wrong question.



"The question is, what is the statistical evidence that shows that reducing the limit on a clip from 15 to 10 rounds will reduce gun crime?" Fiamingo said. "If this passes, are the Latin Kings or the Bloods or the Crips going to reduce their magazine capacity to 10 rounds?"



Despite objections from gun-rights groups, polls taken in the aftermath of Newtown showed nearly 60 percent of New Jersey residents favored stricter controls on guns, and a year later, public opinion remains on the side of gun control. And while the political climate in the state has changed significantly over the past year, it's too soon to tell if it will result in a sea change on gun control.



Christie, though he's fresh off a landslide reelection victory, is politically wounded. Once the frontrunner for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, the dual scandals surrounding lane closures at the George Washington Bridge and Hurricane Sandy recovery funding in Hoboken have cast a pall — at least for now — over his viability as a national candidate. Whether that will mean he'll focus on a more Jersey-centric agenda or move more to the right remains to be seen.



Sweeney also faces an altered landscape. His own reelection in the 3rd Legislative District, where gun owners and sportsmen are commonplace, will no doubt allow him more freedom to navigate the issue. He has his own sights set on the governor's office, so he will likely adopt a more statewide focus on a host of issues, gun control being among the most obvious.

Barden and others plan to attend a press conference with the state's legislative leaders later this month in hopes of finishing what was started here last year.

NJ.com reporter S.P. Sullivan contributed to this report.