Bill > A485

Introduced Session

This bill requires the approved risk assessment used by the Pretrial Services Program to consider a charge, including any charge of delinquency, conviction, or adjudication of delinquency, or civil penalty if the act was an unlawful act and not a crime or offense, based on any crime involving the use or possession of a firearm, as risk factors relevant to the risk of failure to appear in court when required and the danger to the community while on pretrial release. The purpose of this bill is to urge the Judiciary to reassess the Public Safety Assessment ("PSA") Risk Factors to more accurately reflect the dangerousness of firearms in a more comprehensive manner. Recently, the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation ("SCI") investigated concerns regarding illegal firearms and issued a report in September 2024 titled "Illegal Firearms Use & Trends in New Jersey." The recent proliferation of privately manufactured "ghost guns," which are easy-to-build homemade guns that do not require background checks and are virtually untraceable, and firearms corrupted with devices enabling them to function like weapons of war, has allowed criminals to outgun the police in many communities. Under the report, SCI was particularly concerned with instances where a firearm is discharged in public but the conduct would not currently be categorized as a violent offense under the PSA. SCI believes that reckless and public discharges of a firearm, including instances when public discharges are charged as criminal mischief or endangering another person, should be categorized as violent offenses. It is an inherently violent offense any time a firearm is discharged in public, as there is always risk that a stray bullet could injure an innocent bystander. This likelihood is even higher due to gun conversion devices that turn semi-automatic firearms into rapid-fire machine guns. SCI's findings reveal that New Jersey should adopt or amend existing laws to address the latest technological advances used by criminal elements to circumvent gun restrictions and corrupt firearms to make them even more dangerous. Specifically, SCI's report includes a finding that the current PSA risk factor calculations fail to accurately reflect the dangerousness of firearms.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Shama Haider (D)*,  Gabriel Rodriguez (D)*,  Chris Tully (D)*,  Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Public Safety and Preparedness Committee (on 01/13/2026)

Official Document