TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday nixed a bill that would have barred carjackers or anyone convicted of gang activity or terroristic threats from owning or purchasing a firearm in New Jersey.

Christie, who's seeking the Republican nomination for president, failed to act on the bill (A4182) by its end-of-legislative session deadline, effectively killing a measure that received overwhelming bipartisan support in the state Legislature.

One of the bill's sponsors expressed outrage over the governor's action.

"The purpose of the bill was to make New Jersey safer. We were elected to take care of the people of New Jersey," said state Assemblyman Timothy Eustace (D-Bergen). "The governor is running for president and doesn't care about the people of New Jersey any more."

Under current law, people convicted of certain serious crimes, such as aggravated assault, arson, burglary, homicide, extortion, endangering the welfare of a child, stalking and burglary, are not allowed to own or purchase a firearm in the state.

The bill sought to add people convicted of "carjacking, gang criminality, racketeering and terroristic threats" to that list.

The Assembly passed the bill in June with 68 lawmakers in favor and none voting "no." Four lawmakers didn't vote and eight abstained. In the state Senate, it passed 37-0 with three senators not voting.

Eustace referred to the bill -- which had a Republican sponsor in the state Senate, Sen. Christopher Bateman (R-Somerset) -- as a common-sense reform.

"He signed reasonable legislation before he was running for president. Now that he's running for president he doesn't," Eustace said.

Christie's office declined to offer insight into the reason for the veto. Instead, a spokeswoman for the governor's office criticized the Legislature over the process in which the bill was passed.

"Nothing on the specific rationale for this bill, other than this with respect to the pocket veto period in general: Having the legislature pass more than 100 bills in such a hasty and scrambled way, praying for them to be rubber stamped, is never a good formula for effectively doing public business," said Christie spokeswoman Joelle Farrell.

Christie has noticeably tacked right on issues concerning gun reform since winning re-election to a second term in office as governor.

During Christie's first four years as governor, he didn't take any steps to loosen New Jersey's strict gun laws. Instead, a Christie spokesman, Michael Drewniak, told reporters in January 2014 that Christie "supports New Jersey's already tough gun laws."

Last year, Christie shifted his position, telling people at a town hall in New Jersey, "If you really want to change those laws in New Jersey, send me a Republican legislature and with a Republican legislature you'll have a governor who will respect appropriately the rights of law-abiding citizens to be able to protect themselves," he said.

And there were other times Christie changed his stance on guns.

In the aftermath of the Newtown, Connecticut, school shootings, Christie proposed banning sales of the powerful .50-caliber rifle.

Then a gun rights group in New Hampshire warned him that they were watching and that his presidential hopes could be at stake. When the Legislature sent Christie a bill that would ban future sales of the rifle, he vetoed it, saying lawmakers had gone further than the "narrowly crafted, prospective limitation."

Now, Christie touts vetoing the legislation he originally proposed while campaigning in early-voting states.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or on Facebook. Follow NJ.com Politics on Facebook.