Moments ago, the New Jersey Assembly voted to pass a bill (A1061 / S721) which would require certain public venues and places of worship to set up emergency plans with local law enforcement and other first responders in the event of a mass shooting.
Having already passed the full State Senate on June 15th, this bill has now passed the full legislature and now heads to the governor's desk.
This bill requires sports and entertainment facilities capable of seating more than 5,000 people, movie theaters capable of seating more than 1,000 people, and places of worship capable of seating more than 500 people to annually prepare and maintain an emergency operations plan in coordination with the appropriate local fire, law enforcement, and emergency response agencies.
Under current State Law, sports and entertainment facilities are required to annually file an emergency operations plan with the municipal emergency management coordinator. This bill extends this requirement to movie theaters and places of worship and requires that the emergency operations plan be submitted to the chief law enforcement officer who serves the municipality in which the sports and entertainment facility, movie theater, or place of worship is located. The emergency operations plan is required to include, but not be limited to, a copy of the building plans or building layout that identifies the internal and external access routes of the sports and entertainment facility, movie theater, or place of worship. The chief law enforcement officer is required to utilize the emergency operations plans to prepare and train for mass casualty and active shooter incidents at these venues.
The bill was sponsored in the assembly by Assemblyman Gary Schaer, (D-Bergen and Passaic), Assemblywoman Britnee Timberlake (Essex and Passaic), Assemblyman Joe Danielsen (Middlesex and Somerset), and co-sponsored by Assemblyman Stanley.
The bill was sponsored in the Senate by Senators Richard Codey, Joseph Cryan, and co-sponsored by Senator Nia Gill.
The legislation comes on the heels of repeated mass shootings across the nation, including when an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School on May 24 in the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade in Uvalde, Texas; and when a white man killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York, at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood.
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1 comment:
But they want to outlaw carrying guns in these places.
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