On Thursday, May 18, the New Jersey Senate Higher Education Committee is scheduled to consider S2830 - legislation that would create a taxpayer-funded "Firearm Violence Research Center" to research "the causes, prevention, and reduction of firearms-related violence."

The legislation, sponsored by Senator Fred "one-gun-a-month" Madden (D4), is a transparent attempt to create an anti-gun think tank cloaked in the legitimacy of academia. Anti-gun billionaires already spend millions on "research" by private anti-gun foundations, but apparently some lawmakers will not be satisfied until New Jersey's already-overburdened taxpayers are forced to fund the very efforts to undermine their rights.

The legislation also co-opts several state agencies to be at the beck and call of the think-tank to answer data requests, including the Motor Vehicle Commission, the Department of Health, the State Police, and the Department of Law and Public Safety.

In the era of terror attacks on U.S. soil, lawmakers should be studying ways to empower citizens to protect and defend themselves in times of emergency, not wasting resources on a thinly-veiled effort to legitimize more gun control that criminals ignore and affects only the law-abiding.

Please contact members of the Senate Higher Education Committee and tell them to vote no on S2830. Click here for Committee Member contact information.

