JACKSON-New Jersey candidate for Governor and Ocean County resident Joseph Rullo spoke Wednesday night in front of a standing room only crowd at the Jackson Township based Central Jersey Rifle and Pistol Club about the citizens’ right to carry and conceal in the Garden State.
Jackson Township is New Jersey’s third largest municipality by square miles with over 100 square miles of land, most of protected pinelands and wetlands, making it one of the top hunting destinations in New Jersey.
It’s a town where each deer season cars and trucks line the roads near the thousands of acres of protected open space. It’s one of those few places in New Jersey where a deer stand in the woods or a duck blind in an old cranberry bog is a common sight.
Rullo spoke to some 300 of those avid hunters and gun rights advocates at the club’s regular meeting.
Rullo took aim at Democrat politicians such as Senator Cory Booker, the former mayor of the City of Newark, where violent crime in that city is five times greater than elsewhere in the state for promoting restrictive gun control laws that Rullo said only empowers the bad guys.
During his speech he also took aim at the length of time it takes for law abiding citizens of New Jersey to obtain a firearms permit.
“In this town, you can’t get your gun permit approved in six months and that is inexcusable,” he added. “As governor I will work immediately with the New Jersey State Police and chiefs of police to help make the process quicker and give them the resources they need.”
Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno was also in Rullo’s crosshairs. At the March 8th Ocean County GOP nominating convention, Guadagno bragged about being a female armed with a gun, a right she shares with few other women in the state.
“Never underestimate a woman with a bulletproof vest who carries a gun,” Guadagno bragged before her opponent Jack Ciattarelli and the Republican establishment present at that event. Rullo agreed with the Lt. Governor, every woman should be allowed to arm and protect herself, not just the political elite.
“Everyone should be able to carry a gun in New Jersey, Kim,” Rullo said in front of the Jackson gun club. “But we don’t even know where the hell you stand on the second amendment…we don’t know where half of them stand.”
Rullo said that the government is so worried that everyone will apply for conceal and carry permits, but said that isn’t the case, instead said even if few people actually applied, it would be a deterrent because criminals and terrorists won’t know who is armed and who is not.
He doubled down on his commitment to conceal and carry, saying if elected governor he will turn down his right to be protected by armed security if the average resident can’t be afforded the same protections.
“I will not be protected by guns financed by taxpayers when the people of NJ are sitting ducks stripped of their rights to conceal carry,” Rullo said today. “I will hire my own personal protection if it is necessary with my salary. The irony is I believe my life has been in more danger as a candidate with so many controversial issues.”
“I have over 100,000 social media followers from all my pages pages combined and as many candidates receive threats during the campaign,” he added. “I don’t have the state police watching over me at most events if the Lt. Governor is not at the event.”
