New Jersey – -(AmmoLand.com)- New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, aka, The Murph, aka Governor Phil “The Bill of Rights is Above my Paygrade”, has been doing all kinds of neat things with members of his staff.
It looks like he’s trying to imprint as many junior progressives as possible, to get them “set for life”, boldly and proudly wearing the scarlet “P” on their chests for all to see. The musical chairs The Murph is playing with the acting Attorney General’s spot makes me wonder what he’s really up to. Bruck, the most recent former acting Attorney General, was a good little lapdog for Murphy, and it seems as if the new one is going to be just as obedient.
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Matt Platkin was appointed in February by The Murph to keep the spot warm for the next ornamental yipping companion that’ll take his place. Platikin is no stranger to the Murphy Administration as he served as The Murph’s Chief Counsel to the Governor from January 2018 to October 2020. What all Matty Boy was up to during his little furlough, who knows. But he’s back and he’s more worse than ever! Platkin is doing so good that he recently nailed answering a series of questions he was presented by Assemblyman Brian Rumpf, a Republican from Ocean County.
According to the NJ Assembly GOP Youtube channel, Platikin, who you can hear off-screen, was answering questions during a budget hearing on Tuesday, May 3, 2022. Assemblyman Rumpf can be seen at times with a slight coy smile, knowing he had Platkin painted into a corner. Like most progressive gun-grabbing members of the anti-freedom caucus, Platkin did some stammering when flummoxed, and he really did have an opportunity to learn from the king of stammer, Murphy. If The Murph does not have the answer to a question prepared for a reporter in his notes in front of him, he just does not know what to do.
Assemblyman Rumpf: Attorney General, when you were nominated, you said you wanted to tackle gun violence? What’s the state actually going to do to reduce crime on the streets? It’s heart-wrenching to see our children involved in shootings on the news in the victim so often has nothing to do with a gun.
AG Platkin: Yeah. So as I’ve said, gun violence is a top priority. And you know, we don’t have to look too far for an example, like you’re talking about, we had an awful shooting in Trenton. Just a few weeks ago, a nine-year-old girl Sequoia Bacon-Jones was shot and killed while playing hide and seek in the playground of her apartment complex. You know, I, I went to her wake, I’ve hugged her mom, you know, that’s not something I think anybody wants to do. And that’s certainly not something we should ever have. And no kid, no matter where they’re playing is in the wrong place at the wrong time. So we take this task very seriously. And as I’ve talked about, take a comprehensive approach, enforcement side, I mean, we know that a very small number of people are responsible for the majority of violence in the state. Where our statewide Gun Violence Reduction Task Force, I would highlight, again, through intelligence-led policing, and prosecution, we’re gonna go after them, and are going after them. And that’s a collaboration at the state level, as well as county and local partners. We’re going to continue to be aggressive and going after those, using our civil and criminal tools, who would traffic guns in the state illegally, whether that straw purchasers or people selling guns or selling ghost guns into New Jersey, we’re gonna continue to use our tools. And then, as I’ve highlighted before our violence intervention efforts, both the hospital-based violence intervention, which I may have not mentioned, but should have, as well as our Community-Based Violence Intervention, which I’m really grateful for the governor’s continued support this year. But gun violence is an epidemic, we have to treat it as such and use all available tools to go after it.
How’s that for some verbal fornication? Typical word salad from a junior bureaucrat. You make The Murph proud Matty Boy! However, what of this admission, that completely removes the teeth of anything else the gun-grabbing community throws at us: “we know that a very small number of people are responsible for the majority of violence in the state.” If you know who these people are Platkin, then why are you not locking them up and throwing away the key? Instead, you and your ilk continue to capitulate about the so-called “Iron Pipeline”, blaming other states that respect civil liberties for your own failure in governance. This should mean that the administration has no intentions of passing any more laws.
Assemblyman Rumpf goes after Platkin on how his boss goes after civil liberties rather than criminals, followed by a bite at the jugular:
Assemblyman Rumpf: Attorney General Why have the efforts of this administration been the compromises the rights of legal gun owners rather than the criminals perpetrating the crimes?
AG Platkin: Respectfully, I don’t think that that’s an accurate reflection of what we do in our department. We hold those accountable, who use guns in their communities illegally. And we’ve been aggressive and will continue to be aggressive at prosecuting trigger pullers. As I said, we’re investing in nonfatal, not investing resources in nonfatal shooting response, which is the single biggest predictor of a fatal shooting, and will continue through our statewide Task Force, as well as through our partnerships with county and locals to be vigilant and responsive to the rising gun violence in the state.
Assemblyman Rumpf: General gun related homicides in New Jersey have increased by 41%. Since the beginning of the pandemic, despite New Jersey having over 90 gun laws on the books, the administration has enacted 16 new laws since taking office, if those laws were effective, why is the problem getting worse? Why haven’t they prevented an increase in the gun related homicides we’ve been discussed.
Platkin’s answer is more word salad. He blamed the pandemic and pointed to similar rises in other areas in the country. The entirety of the exchange is worth watching. I’d like to congratulate Assemblyman Rumpf for asking the right questions and really rolling out an appropriate welcome wagon for this junior swamp critter. Let us not forget that The Murph was a member of Obama’s administration. Murphy’s former communication director Mahen Gunaratna took a job as a top-level servant at Nanny Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety. The swamp runs deep with this lot, and as we can see from the exchange, they provide nothing but nonsensical drivel.
Let us remember:
“We know that a very small number of people are responsible for the majority of violence in the state.” – New Jersey Acting Attorney General Matt Platkin
Not only do they know who’s responsible for the violence, they also know how to fix it. They’re just unwilling to do their jobs. They would rather disarm the population as their “doing something”…but, for what purpose?
John Petrolino is a US Merchant Marine Officer, writer, author of Decoding Firearms: An Easy to Read Guide on General Gun Safety & Use and NRA certified pistol, rifle, and shotgun instructor living under and working to change New Jersey’s draconian and unconstitutional gun laws. You can find him on the web at www.johnpetrolino.com on twitter at @johnpetrolino, facebook at @thepenpatriot and on instagram @jpetrolinoiii .
