Certainly the United States Congress has already had ample reason to enact a strict federal gun control law. If the riot in Newark is not enough to insure an immediate exercise of Congressional responsibility, what more will it take? It is naive to expect that the end of unrest in our cities is in sight. For every innocent man, woman, or child who is killed or maimed by a sniper's wespa purchased or transported in interstate commerce, there remains an indelible blot on the conscience of society.

The people of New Jersey are no different from people elsewhere in their overwhelming endorsement of sensible gun controls. At least in our State, it is also obvious that speaking out for gun controls does not constitute a political liability During the gubernatorial campaign of 1965, Governor Hughes took a strong position in favor of strict gun controls. Notwithstanding his opponent took a diametrically opposed position and the gun lobby threatened political reprisals at the polls, the Governor was re-elected by the greatest landslide in the State> history.

But events such as we have witnessed in Newark and other urban centers may have an impact on popular support for gun controls which makes it even more essential that Congress enact stringent federal controls on the mail-order and interstate shipment of firearms. The N.R.A., as you know, has suggested that Americans should arm themselves for self-defense in case of racial violence. This is the evil inherent in Congressional inaction in this field, i.e., the spiraling effect of citizen armament. We have a law which has clearly demonstrated that New Jersey can keep undersirables from purchasing firearms in our State We have done our job. The rest is up to Congress.

It is my fervent prayer that you and your colleagues will continue your work in the days ahead for the passage of the Administration's pending firearms contro law. If I can be of any assistance in these efforts, I await your call.

Sincerely,

ARTHUR J. SILLS.
Attorney General

Senator KENNEDY. I would like to read some very brief excerpts of that letter, Mr. Chairman.

This is on page 3 of the letter which he sent to me on July 19talking about the problems of legislation and the problems of unrestricted gun purchases, and the effect that it has on the State:

On the other hand, we are faced with the very serious problem posed by the easy accessibility of firearms to New Jersey residents from out-of-State sources While it is illegal for a New Jersey resident to purchase firearms through the mails without first obtaining an I.D. card or purchase permit, I am sure you reg nize that it is virtually impossible to detect such illegal purchases. We have ai found that many New Jersey residents, who prefer to avoid the requirements of our law, are making in-person purchases from gun dealers in neighboring states The extent of this problem and whether or not the purchasers are unfit with. the meaning of our law are again matters of speculation. We do know, however that New Jersey dealers located in proximity of the borders of the State have claimed heavy financial losses, while dealers across the border have reported stantial increases in the sale of rifles and shotguns. Furthermore, only applications were submitted as of July 1, 1966. Since there are more than 15000 hunting licenses sold each year, and since it is claimed by the gun lobby that most sportsmen buy, sell, or swap firearms at least once during the year, one est surmise that a great many rifles and shotguns have been purchased by New Jersey residents from out-of-State dealers.

Certainly the devastation wreaked upon the City of Newark in recent days conclusive testimony to the ineffectiveness of our law in preventing the im tation of firearms into New Jersey by persons with criminal intent. We are that many of the weapons used by snipers and rioters during these catastroez days could not have been purchased legally in New Jersey. In one case, the veel of an admitted member of the N.R.A. was found to contain an arsenal of weap including a 30-06 rifle with telescopic sight, 2 Browning Automatic Rifles, 3 he rifles, shotguns, and ammunition for all of the firearms. Scores of out-of-St vehicles containing weapons for suspected violent use were also intercepted whoattempting to enter Newark.

It is my fervent prayer that you and your colleagues will continue your wor the days ahead for the passage of the Administration's pending firearms ca trol law. If I can be of any assistance in these efforts, I await your cai,

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your including that in the record, and I look forward, as you do, to hearing the testimony of Governor Hughes at this point.

Chairman DODD. I have just been reminded that it was exactly 4 years ago today that I introduced the gun bill. It has been a long, hard row. A lot of things have happened that I do not think should have happened in the interim. I had forgotten it was 4 years ago today. But it was.

So it is rather a propitious occasion on which you appear here, Governor.

STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD J. HUGHES, GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY

Governor HUGHES. Mr. Chairman, and Senators, I appreciate very much this opportunity to come here, and I do so as a matter of what I conceive to be responsibility on my part. And also feeling almost a sense of finality, because I sense that Congress is approaching a final decision. And I extend my appreciation also to all the members of the committee, including those who have an honest and sincere difference of opinion, according to rumor, as to the validity and advisability of this amendment.

I think, Mr. Chairman, that Congress, especially in view of this long-pending question, and the volumes of testimony that have been given concerning it, is now faced with the immediacy of a decision on the enactment of a strong and meaningful interstate gun control bill. Every time a policeman is killed by a wanton criminal with a gun, every time a mentally unstable person shoots down helpless citizens, the question is asked: Why must we make it so easy for everyone to purchase firearms of every kind with absolutely no question asked? People are impressed by events, tragic in nature sometimes, isolated events, but in the ordinary run, these statistics show these events are by no means atypical. They represent what is going on in the country. I call to your attention-and I would like to leave with the committee, if I can—a report from a New Jersey newspaper which is representative of other reports of the whole press, the State police reports are not finished yet of course. It is a story of a young man, 24 years old, sort of a Nazi buff, who was beseiged in his house on July 27, just last week, who had to be taken out by force, by tear gas, shot a police captain through the arm and thought it was a pretty good shot when he was arrested. And he was in possession of a Thompson submachinegun, a revolver, and a sawed-off foreign-make semiautomatic rifle. Lots of ammunition. Really, a small arsenal.

(The article referred to was marked "Exhibit No. 138" and is as follows:)

EXHIBIT No. 138

[From the Newark Evening News, Thursday, July 27, 1967]

TENAFLY MAN SHOOTS IT OUT WITH POLICE, FINALLY CAUGHT

(By Richard M. Ross)

TENAFLY.-A 24-year-old man held police at bay for an hour with a small arms arsenal yesterday and wounded a police captain before being smoked out of his house with tear gas.

Frank A. Sweeney, Jr., convicted five years ago of attempted bank robbery to gain funds for what he had termed "Aryanism," was held in Bergen County jail. He will get a preliminary hearing in municipal court on charges including possession of a machine gun and the attempted murder of the police captain.

Capt. Peter Zurla, 51, was grazed on the left arm by a blast from a sawed-đ carbine as he tried to sneak in the side door of a brick one-family house at 72 Creston Ave. He returned to duty after treatment.

Police Chief Chester B. Campbell said at least 10 pamphlets he described as "Nazi literature," a copy of Adolph Hitler's "Mein Kampf" and a metal swastika were found in Sweeney's bedroom after he was flushed from his home at abo 2:30 p.m.

The incident began, police reported, after they received a call at 1:30 p.m. that shots were heard coming from a wooded area off East Clinton Avenue abou mile from Sweeney's house. Patrolman William Faivre was sent to investigate and said he spotted an unoccupied car near the woods, but found no one near r Faivre said he was heading for another section of the wooded area when he saw someone get in the car and drive away. The patrolman said he turned bis car around and pursued the auto, finally catching up with Sweeney as he pulled into his driveway. The patrolman began to question Sweeney about the gunshots when he said he noticed a submachinegun on the floor of Sweeney's car.

As Faivre reached in the car to get the weapon, he said. Sweeney bolted for his house and locked himself in.

The patrolman radioed for reinforcements and as about 11 more policemer arrived, police said, Sweeney began taking pot shots at them from a second floor window of the tree-shaded house.

Attempts by Sweeney's father, Frank A. Sweeney, Sr., a local real estate agent and by his younger brother, John, to talk him out of the house were answered by gunfire.

Sweeney, wearing a sweatshirt and a pair of slacks, his hands high in the air staggered out only after police fired three volleys of tear gas through the window. Sweeney was later arraigned before Magistrate William A. Fesolo.

In addition to charges of possession of the machine gun and attempted murder. Sweeney also was accused of intent to kill and atrocious assault and battery of Capt. Zurla.

Sweeney was released from the Annandale Reformatory last July for the Feb. 23, 1962, attempted holdup of the Park Place Branch of the Palisade Trust Co. in Englewood. Sweeney, then 18, pointed a toy pistol at a teller and demanded money, but ran from the bank when the teller ignored him, police said. He was captured a few blocks away by an off-duty patrolman, who walked into the bank a few minutes after the aborted holdup.

At that time, Sweeney told police he needed money "to finance Nazi activities” Police said Sweeney had boasted of being a member of the American Nazi party and said he was a "commando in the Nazi cause."

Governor HUGHES. Then last year we saw a State policeman, New Jersey State policeman; New Jersey State police have been very much in the news lately-a decent, fine, young State policeman. He went up to a car he thought was disabled on the New Jersey turnpike at nigh was shot down without cause by a man who had been convicted of crime in New York, who could not have bought a gun in New Jersey. but he bought it in one of the neighboring States by terrible coincdence just the day before. That policeman would be alive were it not for the sale of that gun.

We have been faced with this problem for years and so in 1966 w enacted the strongest State gun control law in this Nation. And under this law, since its effective date of August 2, 1966, 42,000 fingerprint applications were processed as of June 30, 1967. Among these were disclosed 3,069 arrest records, deriving from the State police and FBI files. A total of 30,000 identification cards under the New Jersey stat ute, representing virtually lifetime authority to purchase rifles and shotguns, if you please, subject to revocation only in case of later disqualification, were issued, and 12,000 permits to purchase handgars were issued.

The identification cards were denied in 547 cases. Fifty-seven percent of these denials by reason of criminal records of conviction-not arrests, but conviction. And the remainder for medical reasons and other instances where issuance could not be considered to be compatible with the public health, safety, and welfare. And a total of 248 permits to purchase handguns were denied, with the same general allocation of disqualification reasons.

The FBI has reported consistently throughout the years that 30 percent of all firearms murders are committed with long arms-that is rifles and shotguns. New Jersey's record indicates that for the first 3 months of 1967 only 13 percent of all firearms murders there were committed with long arms.

Moreover, of 1,501 atrocious assaults reported in New Jersey for this same 3-month period, 172, or 11 percent committed with guns as against the FBI reporting that nationwide 17 percent of all atrocious assaults are committed with guns.

A State of course can only do so much for itself. And it is perfectly obvious from all of the evidence in our possession that many guns are being purchased by New Jersey residents quite easily in other States and through the mails. This Sweeney, for instance, could not buy these guns, he has a criminal record-tried to hold up a bank one time. He is he probably has some question about his mental competency, although the record so far does not show confinement to a sanitarium. This boy could not purchase this arsenal in New Jersey. He has these guns by the courtesy of Congress at this particular time, unless he stole them.

The recent appeals by subversives and extremists to Americans to arm themselves for the purpose of rioting and rebellions in our cities should be the final piece of evidence needed by Congress to do what it should have done a long time ago, and not to continue the tragedy of bowing to a powerful lobby to omit the doing of something so obviously necessary for the safety of the families and decent citizens of America. I am reminded, Mr. Chairman, and Senators, that the recent tragedies in our cities were aggravated and prolonged by cowardly and deadly snipers, many of whom obviously obtained weapons from other States. I have submitted a list of 58 guns seized in connection with arrests during the riots in Newark. And you will notice that there is a large proportion of long guns, long arms, as well as a submachinegun with magazine.

Chairman DODD. I notice, Governor, that-it will be of interest to you-that some of the guns on your list are identical with those found in Detroit, and they are practically all mail-order type guns that is they are known as the Saturday Night Specials, which means they are bought across the State line in Ohio-theOmega, the Derringer, the Beretta. You have them on your list. We find the authorities in Detroit looking down the barrels of the same weapons.

Governor HUGHES. So far, too, Mr. Chairman, we have not found any of the people who were caught sniping and caught in possession of these deadly weapons in New Jersey were what one might classify as sportsmen, as to whom the false claim is constantly made throughout this country will be prevented from buying guns by this type of law.

It is tragic in my judgment, and with deference I might say that it seems to me to contain the beginning elements of a national scandal,

at this important and dangerous posture of our Nation's affairs, that Congress should even be considering the denial of the protection of an interstate gun control law to Americans threatened not only be crimnals and narcotics addicts and mentally unstable persons, but by extremists who openly and criminally call for armed revolt in the cities of America.

It seems to me nothing less than reprehensible that organizations such as the National Rifle Association, which has so very much by way of pecuniary interest in the outcome, and which realizes or shop' realize better than anyone else that strong gun control legislation cond be enacted without in any way inhibiting the activity of responsible sportsmen and decent citizens, continues to stand on empty platitudes and a distorted sense of the word "freedom," in taking a position which no matter how one looks at it adds up to support of the selfish among and the encouragement of violence with guns. And I think, Mr. Chairman, it is time that all of us, all of us Americans, including associations of gun dealers, if you please, gave more thought to the safety of the people of America, and the policemen on the street, whose job is already dangerous enough.

Our police forces constitute the thin line of protection between an ordered society and those who disrupt it by violence and with guns: and these policemen, at least in my State, are of one unanimous vie", that guns must be controlled if the safety of American citizens is to be protected.

We are sure in New Jersey that despite our rigid gun control law no sportsman, no decent citizen who desires to possess or obtain a gun is subjected to more than inconvenience, equivalent in a way to obtaining a motor vehicle registration, or a driver's license. And this is a small sacrifice indeed to the public interest and for the safety of America.

Despite the strict gun control legislation in New Jersey, we have seen no discernible effect, Mr. Chairman, on legitimate sportsmen, as was threatened, since more hunting licenses were sold in New Jerr in 1966 than 1965, and the bag of deer incident to the September hurting season, after this law was implemented, was the third highest the history of the modern deer herd in New Jersey.

In New Jersey, hunting license sales average about 150.000 per year. And I think, too, that people are inclined to exaggerate the political impact of enacting gun control legislation.

In New Jersey our gun control law, although members of my party control the legislature by majorities of 2 to 1 in each house, was passed by the narrowest margin. If I recall correctly, perhaps by one For And I can tell you that even members of my own party were initaly very apprehensive about the threat of political retaliation. And re this political retaliation, Mr. Chairman, is nothing more than a myth

In 1965, when I went before the public of New Jersey, in my campaign for my second term as Governor, I campaigned strongly and in unmistakable terms for strict gun-control legislation. And this was reflected in hundreds of speeches and public statements in every part of the State. My opponent campaigned just as hard against it. He was supported by gun dealers and publications and I dare say by poltical contributions. And there were the familiar platitudes about the right of the people to bear arms, which in my humble opinion is a most nonsensical reference when one applies it to a narcotics addi”, and convicted criminals, and people who are mentally unstable.