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Assemblyman Lou Greenwald (D-Camden)

(Star-Ledger file photo )

By Louis Greenwald

Leadership comes in many forms. It can include effectiveness, honesty and the ability to do the right thing, no matter the consequences.

Leadership does not include trying to hide your true actions. It does not include pandering to far-off voters instead of those you are sworn to protect. It most certainly does not include putting rabid personal ambition above public safety.

In other words, leadership is not Chris Christie.

The governor's veto Wednesday of legislation I sponsored to reduce the maximum capacity of ammunition magazines to 10 rounds was among the more faint-hearted acts one will ever see from an elected official.

It was also among the most cold-hearted.

Just minutes after the parents of children murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School dropped off petitions asking Christie to sign the bill, the governor rejected it and released a statement that implied these parents were "grandstanding" and employing "empty rhetoric" in their support.

Only someone with craven cowardice could make such a statement.

This bill wasn’t dreamed up out of thin air. This legislation was in response to the horrific tragedy in Arizona where an assailant used a large-capacity ammunition magazine to kill six people and injure 13 others, including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Among those murdered was 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, who was shot that day by the 13th bullet.

As Giffords’ husband, retired Capt. Mark Kelly, told a U.S. Senate committee, if the shooter hadn’t had access to a high-capacity magazine and had any problem quickly reloading with 10-round magazines, “Christina Taylor Green would be alive today.”

Nor was this bill something thrown together as a feel-good measure. It replicated the former national standard, and national law enforcement leaders have supported banning high-capacity magazines.

Jim Johnson, the Baltimore Police Chief and chairman of the National Law Enforcement Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence, said, “Certainly, we believe that limiting a magazine to 10 rounds, what was in place from ’94 to 2004, is wise and certainly could save lives in America.” New York’s top cop, Bill Bratton, said, “High-capacity ammunition magazines were designed as weapons of war.”

But what was the best reason to make this bill law?

The answer is the parents from Sandy Hook Elementary School, who told us this was the single most important gun safety measure we could pass to stop killers from turning into killing machines.

This wasn’t grandstanding. This wasn’t empty rhetoric. This was advice from parents who know more about this issue than any of us will ever want to know. As they said, “Smaller magazines would have saved more lives at Sandy Hook Elementary, possibly even the lives of our own children.”

The governor has worked tirelessly to create an image of himself as a bold leader, but the truth is clearer every day.

We now know his handling of Hurricane Sandy was built around promoting himself. We know the governor has continuously rejected tax relief for the working class while giving tax breaks to millionaires. We know his budget policies have left the state in economic shambles.

And with this veto, he has reached a horrible new low.

The governor’s action can best be described with words used in his own veto statement, “difficult choices are brushed aside … uncomfortable topics are left unexplored.” I would imagine signing this bill would have been a very uncomfortable topic to have with conservative voters in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Clearly, avoiding such a conversation is Christie’s priority, as opposed to protecting New Jersey. In fact, this is political expediency at its worst, considering the governor is headed to campaign in Iowa in just a few weeks.

At the end of the day, if you want to look up the governor’s actions on this bill in the dictionary, don’t look up the word “leadership.”

Instead, look up the word “cowardly.” You’ll find him right there.

Louis Greenwald (D-Camden) is Assembly Majority Leader.

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