TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie today vetoed a gun control bill that would have reduced the permitted size of ammunition magazines, saying it would do nothing to reduce gun violence.

“This is the very embodiment of reform in name only. It simply defies common sense to believe that imposing a new and entirely arbitrary number of bullets that can be lawfully loaded into a firearm will somehow eradicate, or even reduce, future instances of mass violence,” Christie said. “Nor is it sufficient to claim that a ten-round capacity might spare an eleventh victim.”

UPDATE:

Sandy Hook parents call Christie veto of NJ gun bill a 'blow to the memories of our children'

The move came less than an hour after gun control advocates — including parents of two children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting — dropped off at Christie's office 55,000 signatures of people from around the country, including 10,000 from New Jersey, urging him to sign the measure.

Christie conditionally vetoed the legislation (A2006), but he did more than propose changes. He completely rewrote it, eliminating the ammunition capacity reduction and suggesting in its place several changes to the state's mental health system that he first proposed more than a year ago.

“I will not support such a trivial approach to the sanctity of human life, because this is not governing. Governing is confronting problems,” Christie said in his veto message.

The bill, which was passed by the Legislature mostly along party lines in May, would have reduced the permitted size of ammunition magazines from 15 rounds to 10.

“We want him to know that we are watching, we are aware and we are engaged,” Mark Barden, whose son Daniel was killed in the shooting, said at a Statehouse news conference this afternoon. “Governor Christie, these 55,000 people are asking you. The State of New Jersey is asking you. We are asking you and I am asking you as a father to a father, please sign A2006.”

But instead of a magazine size reduction, Christie proposed a new standard for involuntary commitment of patients who are not necessarily deemed dangerous “but whose mental illness, if untreated, could deteriorate to the point of harm.”

Christie also proposed new standards for recommending patients for involuntary outpatient treatment, “streamlining” patient transfers between inpatient and outpatient programs, new training programs for first responders likely to encounter unstable people with “modern techniques for de-escalation,” and to require people forced to undergo mental health treatment to demonstrate “adequate medical evidence of suitability” if they want to get a firearms purchase identification card.

The changes were first proposed by Christie in April 2013, but did not advance in the Legislature. Christie said Democrats who pushed the gun control legislation took “the easier path.”

Although Christie signed some gun-related bills pushed by Democrats last year in the aftermath of Sandy Hook, he either vetoed or significantly altered more far-reaching bills, including a ban on .50 caliber rifles that he had previously called for himself.

Christie, who is considered a likely contender for president in 2016, has faced pressure from gun rights organizations, including one in New Hampshire that warned last year that he would have a hard time winning the state’s first-in-the-nation Republican presidential primary if he signed gun control bills.

The bill was the last major piece of gun control legislation Democrats pushed in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre. Originally, Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), who represents a competitive legislative district, refused to move it even though it had passed the Assembly. But after he won a new four-year term in November, he agreed to put it up for a vote in the upper house, saying lobbying from Sandy Hook families had changed his mind.

Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald (D-Camden), the bill's sponsor, called the veto a "cowardly decision that lacks leadership."

"I would imagine this is a very uncomfortable topic to have with conservative voters in Iowa and New Hampshire," Greenwald said.

Scott Bach, executive director of the New Jersey Association of Rifle and Pistol Clubs, applauded Christie’s veto.

"After months of intense battle over this misguided legislation that won't stop another crime or prevent another tragedy, we are grateful that Governor Christie has heard the voice of the outdoor community and ended the discussion,” Bach said in a statement. “The governor clearly recognizes the difference between legislation that punishes violent criminals vs. legislation that targets the rights of law-abiding citizens.”

Gun control advocates were not happy.

“The very day that grieving parents of children slain in Sandy Hook Elementary School brought 55,000 petitions asking the governor to do the right thing for public safety, he did exactly the wrong thing,” said Bryan Miller, executive director of Heeding God’s Call, a faith-based group that pushes for more gun control measures. "The governor failed in his opportunity to do something simple, effective and instant for the safety of New Jersey's homes, schools and communities."

New Jersey has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, and is one of just eight states that limits the size of ammunition magazines. Most of those states, including New York, limit them to 10 rounds.

Phillip Lubitz, associate director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness in New Jersey, said the governor's proposal is good news, and hopes the legislature will act and change the law soon.

The existing involuntary outpatient commitment law gives judges the authority to order people with severe mental illness into outpatient therapy with close supervision if they pose a danger to themselves or others in the "foreseeable future." If the patient does not participate in therapy, the judge can hold a hearing and decide whether to involuntarily commit the person to an inpatient psychiatric facility.

Lubitz said the state's law is confusing to psychiatrists because the standard for ordering someone into treatment — whether it is for outpatient or inpatient care — is basically the same. So psychiatrists and clinical professors play it safe and order people to hospital care rather than take a chance the patient acts out while on an outpatient status.

The law was intended to keep people out of hospitals, and it's not being used that way, he said.

"It's a disservice to wait until someone deteriorates before (the courts) can take action. This is going to allow them to intervene because they need treatment, not because they are dangerous. It's using a standard that looks at someone with mental illness as someone who is gravely disabled," Lubitz said.

Still, Lubitz said aid he didn't think the change would address the rash of mass shootings, most often by young men.

"There's still another discussion that has to take place about the subset of individuals who have never really received any treatment or adequate treatment, who are primarily young males that have managed to barely exist on the fringe of society without being hospitalized or getting thorough treatment," he said.

State Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex), who sponsored the 2009 legislation that created New Jersey's involuntary outpatient commitment law, said some of Christie's proposed changes "sound good" but deserve a "thorough vetting of that apart from the issue" of gun control.

"I’m not stupid. It’s clearly done to distract attention away from the fact that he’s against meaningful gun control at a time when our country needs it," Codey said. “I’m not surprised that he did it late in the afternoon, close to a holiday weekend.”

Star-Ledger staff writer Susan K. Livio contributed to this report.

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