Chris Christie was against the 2nd Amendment before he was for it

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. – The Second Amendment to the US Constitution

Perhaps the tremendous weight-loss as a result of  his lap-band surgery changed the wiring of his cerebral cortex, or perhaps it was something just a bit more calendar related which brought about Chris Christie’s sudden constitutional orthodoxy.

All of a sudden New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is a supporter of the Second Amendment.  The Governor and “kissing cousin” to President Obama actually vetoed part of his own gun-control agenda on Friday.

Christie used a conditional veto to rewrite the most extreme bills that came out of the Legislature this year (a conditional is a  veto in which the Governor objects to parts of a bill and proposes amendments that would make it acceptable. If the Legislature re-enacts the bill with the recommended amendments, it is presented again to the Governor for signature, otherwise the bill is dead in the water). The provisions of the bill struck downwould have identified gun owners on a “smart card” such as a driver’s license,  a training requirement just to own a firearm and a ban on private exchanges.  The Governor also vetoed a bill to ban .50-caliber firearms, even though he called for this same measure earlier this year. “

A local radio station 101.5 reported the Christie Plan back in April which sounds strikingly close to what he rejected on Friday:

New Jersey has the second toughest gun laws in the country. The first facet of Christie’s plan seeks to make them even stricter. 

This includes banning future purchases of the Barrett .50 Caliber. Christie’s plan would also strengthen the state’s background check requirement by requiring mental health records to be included during the process at the time of a firearm purchase. The plan requires gun buyers to present a valid government photo ID, along with the already-mandatory Firearms Purchaser Identification Card.

Perhaps it is my cynical nature but I certainly wonder if Christie truly didn’t like the legislation he vetoed or was it a realization he is getting close to 2016 and needed to look like a conservative to gain the GOP presidential nomination. It was only two weeks ago that the NJ Governor passed other restrictive gun measures. Nothing has happened since to make him change his mind–well except perhaps his meeting with the GOP National Committee in Boston where he might have been advised to start pivoting in order to make conservatives happy.

This is not to say the NJ Governor is a “flip-flopper,” but I can already see the Anti-Christie TV ads, “He was for gun-control before he was against it.”  Christie may very well learn that voters have a long memory and policy changes on constitutional issues such as the Second Amendment may haunt him in national elections, the same way health care haunted Mitt Romney.  In the end voters will be left wondering which Christie is the real Christie.

Source Washington Times

Jeff Dunetz is a conservative blogger and contributor to Rare. Follow him on Twitter at @yidwithlid.