In the end guys, it is the fault of the citizens of NJ. We need to stop and think, these laws are in place cause the people that matter WANT them there.
Well yes ... no.
I think that Guns just aren't on the radar screen for most New Jersey residents. It's just not something people think about here.
Don't forget, New Jersey is a very expensive state to live in. Many people have more than one job. It's common for people to spend three hours on the turnpike getting to and from work. When we get home, we just want to eat dinner and go to bed. We are just too darn tired to think about something as remote as gun politics.
I shoot skeet. I don't hide it, but I mention it in conversation when people ask me about my weekend. I take friends and neighbors skeet shooting occasionally to try and promote the sport. Once in a while I find a neighbor who takes a rabidly anti-gun stance but for the most part, people don't care. It's not that residents are anti-gun, it's that they are just busy doing other things and shooting sports aren't one of them.
I took a co-worker skeet shooting a couple of weeks ago and she asked me: "Where do you even buy a gun?" Weapons just didn't even exist in her world. I've spoken with friends who didn't even know that Dicks Sporting Goods had a firearms department.
So when politicians come along and propose new gun laws, 10% of the state goes nuts (the hunters, collectors and enthusiasts) but nobody else really takes much notice because it just doesn't effect them.
I think that some of this was engineered with New Jersey's Firearms ID card laws. In other states, if you take a friend shooting, that friend could go and buy a gun the very next day if he can pass a NICS check. In a different state, it's common for a co-worker to sell a gun to another co-worker if he needs the cash to get him through the month. Or for a woman who lives alone to receive a gun as a gift from a boyfriend. This promotes "casual" ownership by people who may never use it, but keep in in a nightstand drawer "just in case." This kind of ownership does not happen New Jersey.
If you want a gun in New Jersey, you have to fill out an intimidating form, get a money order, set up background check references, take time off of work to get fingerprinted, and wait for the chief of police in your town to get the paperwork together.
I think that most people who want a gun just stop when they see the form. I've encountered this before with friends I've taken skeet shooting. Some of them enjoy it so much that they resolve to go down to the police station to get their firearms ID card paperwork... only to have it sit on the kitchen table for a month. It's just a pain to do. And some others are intimidated by a block on the form which requires you to list your employer and employer's address. Some people are afraid that their employers will be contacted (and from what I understand, some police departments do contact employers as part of their background check).
This inconvenience is designed to cause a chilling effect. It's designed to keep guns out of the hands of casual owners. Now this law also has another unintended effect. New Jersey gun owners (all 10% of us) tend to be very vocal, and very organized, and very aware of our rights because we have been *distilled.* You have to be an enthusiast in New Jersey because only the enthusiast has the perseverance to get the proper permits.
I think at one point (back in the 60's when these FID laws were passed) your statement was true. People really did want gun control. But the laws had the effect of creating a generation of people who didn't grow up with guns. They might not be for or against weapons, they just have no experience with them and so really don't care.
So do New Jersey gun owners want the laws there? No. Do the people of New Jersey want those laws? Honestly, I don't think that they even know the laws exist. So it's not that they want them, they might not be pro-gun or anti-gun, they just might be apathetic. My way of fixing that is to take people shooting whenever I go to the range. But I have to admit it's an uphill climb.