Former N.J. Governor Jim Florio Offers Lame Response to Lott Op/Ed on Christie Magazine/Gun Ban Veto

Last weekend, the New Jersey Star-Ledger printed an Op/Ed by Dr. John Lott that logically explained why Governor Chris Christie's veto of a magazine/gun ban that was passed by the N.J. General Assembly during the 2014 session, was the right decision.  Today, former Governor Jim Florio, no friend of gun owners, took to the paper's editorial page to give an opposing view, and infers Lott is nothing but a shill for the NRA:

First, his book echoes the National Rifle Association’s executive director’s stated view that the answer to gun violence is more guns for everybody. Most people reject this Wild West attitude to law enforcement by shootouts. He offers the fact that there is no evidence to justify limits on magazine capacity.

Aside from the fact that the NRA has forced Congress into prohibiting gun violence research, by following his logic, there is no hard evidence that proposed limits don’t provide better protection. Common sense, however, dictates that when seconds count, a mass killer needs time to change magazines.

Note that Florio trots out the gun ban lobby's talking point about the lack of research.  But Lott has addressed that too:

Despite his widely publicized claim, no evidence has been provided that firearms research actually declined either after the Dickey Amendment to the Centers for Disease Control funding was passed in 1997 appropriations or restrictions were imposed on the National Institute of Health and other federal health agencies funding gun research. What Bloomberg measures is firearms research relative to all other research. And, indeed, after the 1996 restrictions on federal funding, firearms research in medical journals did fall as a percentage of all research but total research on firearms has increased over that time.

Florio goes on to endorse all the policies Obama trotted out last year, and throws in a ban on .50 rifles, even though no one can tell us when the last time a gang banger or your average run of-the-mill criminal used .50 rifle into a convenience store to commit a robbery.

Dr. Lott has in the past posted on his blog point by point responses to his critics.  I'm looking forward to him taking Florio's argument apart.