Governor Phil Murphy (D-NJ) is Interviewed About His Landmark Order On Gun Safety.
CAMEROTA: More than 100 CEOs of America's largest companies are urging the Senate to stop gun violence now. They write in a letter, saying doing nothing about America's gun violence crisis is simply unacceptable and it's time to stand with the American public on gun safety. This as New Jersey's Governor Phil Murphy is putting gunmakers and dealers on notice in an unusual way. So, joining us is Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey. Governor, thanks so much for being here. We'll get to that letter from the CEOs in a minute.</s>GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): Thank you, Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: But first of all, I just want to hear your rather unusual tactic that you are taking to try to fight gun violence. What have you decided to do?</s>MURPHY: So we have been at this since day one. I've been in office about 20 months. I'll spare the long list of executive orders and legislation and other coalitions with other like-minded states. A couple of days ago I signed an executive order which essentially puts our money where our mouth is. It has three parts. Number one, if you are a vendor and selling guns or ammunition or related equipment to New Jersey, you've got to abide by a set of principles as it relates to gun safety. Secondly, if you are a financial institution, and you are lending or investing in those vendors, manufacturers, retailers, you also will have to abide by a set of principles as it relates to gun safety. And thirdly, we're going to review and ultimately ban certain types of insurance that leads to irresponsible gun behavior. And these are big numbers for us. We buy over the past period of time about $70 million of equipment. And more importantly, we spend about a billion dollars a year in fees to financial institutions. So we're going to use that muscle to further this cause.</s>CAMEROTA: Just explain how this works. So you're going after these banks. You're going after insurance policies. And you're putting your money where your mouth is. Obviously, you spend so much money that you'll get their attention. And you're going after vendors. You say if they don't comply with safety practices. But just explain in layman's terms what changes. What do you need these vendors to do that will make a difference starting today?</s>MURPHY: So, Alisyn, we would go into this and we are now in the process of sending out these requests with a spirit of goodwill, in hopes that we will -- we will be doing business with like-minded vendors and financial institutions. So, this is not necessarily adversarial, but a vendor, whether it's a manufacturer or retailer, for instance, that we do business with. How serious do they take background universal checks? How seriously do they take training and communication? How seriously do they prevent a straw purchaser or someone who shouldn't have a gun in their hands to get one? So what principles do they abide by? Are they consistent with our principles? If they are, we'll do more business with them. If they're not, we'll go elsewhere.</s>CAMEROTA: You're saying if they don't do those things, if they sell to a straw purchaser or whatever, your state police will no longer buy guns from them?</s>MURPHY: That is a potential outcome here, yes. We'll do business with vendors who we trust and who share the same gun safety principles as we do. And there's enough latitude for us to be able to do that.