ASSEMBLY PUBLIC SAFETY AND PREPAREDNESS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 4531

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JUNE 17, 2024

      The Assembly Public Safety and Preparedness Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 4531.

      As reported by the committee, this bill prohibits the prosecution from entering into a plea agreement for a lesser term of imprisonment or fine for the crime of burglary when a firearm is involved.

     Under current law, it is a crime of the second degree if, in the course of committing the offense of burglary, the actor: (1) purposely, knowingly or recklessly inflicts, attempts to inflict, or threatens to inflict bodily injury on anyone; or (2) is armed with or displays what appears to be explosives or a deadly weapon.

     Under the bill, a person convicted of burglary while armed with a firearm would be ineligible to enter into a negotiated plea agreement to receive a lesser term of imprisonment or a fine.

      “Firearm” is defined as any handgun, rifle, shotgun, machine gun, automatic or semi-automatic rifle, or any gun, device or instrument in the nature of a weapon from which may be fired or ejected any solid projectable ball, slug, pellet, missile or bullet, or any gas, vapor or other noxious thing, by means of a cartridge or shell or by the action of an explosive or the igniting of flammable or explosive substances.  “Firearm” also includes, without limitation, any firearm which is in the nature of an air gun, spring gun or pistol or other weapon of a similar nature in which the propelling force is a spring, elastic band, carbon dioxide, compressed or other gas or vapor, air or compressed air, or is ignited by compressed air, and ejecting a bullet or missile smaller than three-eighths of an inch in diameter, with sufficient force to injure a person.