Christie: Rubio ‘Still Learning Where the Men’s Room Is in the Senate’

Christie is seeking the Republican nomination for president, in a contest in which new gun laws, such as universal background checks, are considered verboten.

The bill, which passed the Democratic-controlled Legislature without a single “no” vote, also would make carjacking and the other listed offenses crimes of the second degree, which are punishable by a fine of up to $150,000 and a prison sentence of five to 10 years. Current state law requires gun retailers to sell only “smart guns”, which can include things such as fingerprint or radio transmitter technology, when they’re viable.

So it’s easy to imagine Christie barely giving any thought at all to some of the latest environmental bills before scuttling them.

The bill passed the Legislature along party lines.

The governor did not take any action on the measure – known as a pocket veto – which means it will not take effect.

The Republican governor’s office avoided specific mention of the smoking bill but blamed the Legislature for hastily sending him more than 100 bills, “praying for them to be rubber stamped”.

The New Jersey Food Council had opposed raising the smoking age to 21, arguing people who buy cigarettes frequently also buy a sandwich or a cup of coffee. In 2011, Christie pulled New Jersey from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cap-and-trade coalition of northeast and mid-Atlantic states created to reduce carbon emissions, but denounced by Christie as nothing more than a new tax.

While Lampitt suggested Christie put his own Presidential aspirations above the interests of the people of New Jersey, Burzichelli was a bit more hesitant, or “pragmatic” as he put it, insisting the Governor and his staff had enough time to deal with numerous measures that were pocket vetoed.

Under the legislation Christie vetoed, retailers would have been allowed to continue selling traditional handguns but also required to keep an inventory of at least one kind of smart, or personalized, handgun within three years of their availability in New Jersey or elsewhere in the country. A video of it has been viewed online more than 8 million times.