Shooting at Fast Food Restaurant Another New Jersey Gun Control Fail

New Jersey has some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the country, including a lengthy and needlessly expensive process to obtain a permit to carry. While those laws have proved to be an impediment to lawful gun ownership, as an incident in Union Township over the weekend proves, they’re not doing much to curb violent crime. 

One person was killed and six others were wounded at a Chick Fil A restaurant when multiple individuals opened fire in what police say was not a random attack. 

After the shooting, a man told CBS News New York his girlfriend works at the Union Township Chick-fil-A and that she said a group of men entered the restaurant and went directly behind the counter, firing multiple shots.

Another family member told CBS News New York that their loved one witnessed some kind of altercation between the gunmen.

On Sunday, a man who was working at Botera Cannabis across the street at the time of the shooting described the chaos.

“Last night, around 8:20 p.m., 8:25 p.m., there was a lot of commotion on 22, a lot of people running in all sorts of different directions. When I came in this morning to review some of the footage, it was craziness,” Ben Wegner said.

Lay Ben was working at the Wingstop across the road.

“One of the people that was hurt, the ambulance assisted them over here. That’s all we know,” Ben said. “I just know that they were hurt in the leg and the cops were assisting them.”

In what is a busy shopping area, where many young people work, the tragedy feels personal.

“It could have been us. It’s me, working here, as me being somebody at Wingstop and I’m at the front. It could have been me,” Ben said.

Dashcam footage released by police shows one masked individual running away from the store, followed by another man who sprints off in a different direction. Seconds later, two customers are seen running in front of the car to get away. 

Authorities haven’t detailed what led police to declare this was not a random incident so quickly. or what they believe did lead up to the shooting. I think it’s safe to assume, however, that the suspects responsible for this crime did not possess valid concealed carry permits when they walked into the restaurant and opened fire. 

According to a recent story by the Asbury Park Press, just 475 carry permits have been issued in the township, which is home to more than 61,000 people. That’s a huge increase compared to the five permits that were issued in the three years before New Jersey’s “may issue” permitting regime was repealed as a result of the Bruen decision, but it’s still well below the per capita average in neighboring states like Pennsylvania and Delaware. 

New Jersey’s laws are doing a much better job of ensuring there are no armed citizens able to fight back against violent criminals than actually disarming those violent offenders. From all accounts, the gunmen who stormed into the fast food restaurant on Saturday night met with no armed resistance from any customers, and thanks to New Jersey Democrats, the odds of a lawfully-armed citizen being in the establishment at the time of the shooting were incredibly low. 

Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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