Happiness...

(By way of about a half dozen NJ bloggers.)

Gov. Christie won't share opinion on concealed weapon licenses

"I'm not going to bang my head against the wall on issues that there are absolutely no chance will get posted for a vote in the Legislature," Christie said.

So the questioner put it more bluntly: Would Christie sign a bill allowing concealed weapons if it passed the Legislature?

"I would consider any bill that they send to me," Christie said, again dodging his own position.

He's being torn apart for this by both cartoon liberals who think NJ citizens can't handle what the citizens of 40 other states take in stride every day*, and gun rights advocates who think he should be championing the crusade for Second Amendment rights in the Garden State.

But seriously? This is exactly the right attitude for him to take. With an enormous amount of pressure, dealmaking, and armtwisting, a good NJ governor might be able to get concealed carry and reform of our abusive purchase permit system. But it would be a very close call, would use up all his political capital, and would very likely destroy his governorship if he failed (or, frankly, if he succeeded). Christie has hung his governorship on fixing NJ's dysfunctional budget, not on gun rights, and--whatever you think of the rightness or chance of success of his strategy--fighting for gun rights would guarantee he lost the budget fight.

We have an excellent chance of killing the state's concealed carry ban in the courts; fighting this battle on the much more hostile ground of our fundamentally broken legislature has a much greater chance of hurting than of helping.


[* - There may be something to this. After all, we obviously can't handle pumping our own gas.]