Controversial Actions and Statements:

In a January 4, 2024 interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Bach commented on an anti-trafficking bill that sought to limit civilians' handgun purchases to one per month, saying "This legislation makes it a crime to exercise a constitutional right to obtain handguns any more often than Big Brother dictates. It's overkill in the extreme." The legislation was signed into law by then-Governor Jon Corzine on August 6, 2009.

In a June 30, 2023 editorial in the Star-Ledger, Bach wrote, “The Constitution exists to limit government power over individuals, not the other way around.” In truth, those who drafted and ratified our Constitution did believe that a stronger federal government was necessary in order to preserve the Union. As Alexander Hamilton asked the Constitution's critics in Federalist No. 30: "How is it possible that a government half supplied and always necessitous, can fulfill the purposes of its institution—can provide for the security of—advance the prosperity—or support the reputation of the commonwealth? How can it ever possess either energy or stability, dignity or credit, confidence at home or respectability abroad? How can its administration be any thing else than a succession of expedients temporising, impotent, disgraceful? How will it be able to avoid a frequent sacrifice of its engagements to immediate necessity? How can it undertake or execute any liberal or enlarged plans of public good?”

In an editorial regarding S2431, a state bill that sought to increase criminal penalties for unlawful possession of a handgun, Bach accused New Jersey legislators of “knowingly and intentionally opting to pass legislation that will send law abiding citizens to jail.”

Bach called the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance (now known as the Animal Protection League of New Jersey) an “extremist group“ in a 2003 opinion piece due to its opposition to recreational bear hunting in New Jersey. Bach claimed that the bear hunts were necessary due to the danger to posed to humans. A spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, however, called aggressive bear attacks in the state “infrequent.” Bach also blamed animal rights activists for unsolved vandalism of State Fish & Wildlife vehicles.

Bach embraced an insurrectionist interpretation of the Second Amendment in an undated, unpublished editorial, writing: “Collective firearms ownership by a population is an insurance policy against government oppression and extreme abuses of power. If you don't think that governments oppress and commit atrocities against their own people, think again. During the 20th century, while Americans were building cars, factories, and shopping malls, at least seven major genocides occurred throughout the world, in which more than 50 million people were exterminated by their own governments (Germany, USSR, Communist China, Cambodia, Uganda, Guatemala, and the Ottoman Empire). Each of these state-run atrocities was preceded by ‘common sense’ gun control, registration, and eventual confiscation by the government, all under the pretext of advancing public safety.”

In contrast, the author of the Second Amendment, James Madison, made it clear in his writings that advancing public safety is one of the highest priorities of government. He also made it clear that any armed opposition to the federal government would only be legitimate if conducted under the authority of state governments. In Federalist No. 46, Madison chastened fears of potential tyranny in the federal government, saying such a government would be opposed by "a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by [state] governments possessing their affections and confidence." Furthermore, the U.S. Constitution (in Article 1, Section 8) states that one of the purposes of the state Militia is to "suppress Insurrections," not to foment them.