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Connecticut gun owners drown out opposition, but will lawmakers listen?

March 9, 2023 by Cam Edwards Leave a Comment

The number of opponents to Gov. Ned Lamont’s package of anti-gun legislation far outnumbered supporters during this week’s hearing on the gun control bills, but the Connecticut Citizens Defense League’s Holly Sullivan says that’s no guarantee that the bills will go down to defeat. On today’s Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co, Sullivan says last year’s reluctance on the part of Democrats to go big on gun control seems to have been replaced with a new appetite for infringement, despite the overwhelming objections from Connecticut residents who’ve spoken out on the bills.

“This year is a lot different,” says Sullivan, though she says that while Lamont’s office may be eager to see these bills enshrined into law Connecticut residents seem cool to the idea; pointing to an online poll by the Waterbury Republican-American newspaper that found most respondents don’t believe the bills will make the state a safer place.

“I think among actual constituents there is not an appetite for it, but there certainly is an aggressive push in the governor’s office despite what their constituents think,” Sullivan concluded.

Included in the anti-gun bills that Lamont is pushing this year are proposals to ban adults younger than 21 from purchasing firearms, expanding the state’s existing ban on so-called assault weapons, banning the open carrying of firearms, and instituting a gun-rationing scheme limiting legal gun owners from purchasing more than one firearm within a 30-day period. Meanwhile, legislation that’s aimed at repeat gun offenders instead of legal gun owners has come under fire from some Senate Democrats, including the powerful co-chair of the Judiciary Committee. Sen. Gary Winfield objected to the bill during the Judiciary Committee hearing this week, telling the mayors of Hartford and New Haven that there are plenty of guys in his district who are carrying guns illegally; not because they’re violent criminals but because they live in a dangerous neighborhood. Sullivan says it’s a sign of just how nutty politics in the Nutmeg State has become that legislation aimed at repeat offenders is arguably more controversial in Democratic circles than legislation targeting the state’s legal gun owners.

“Why is there such a double standard? And that’s really getting to the core of how bananas it is here in our state,” Sullivan said with exasperation. “They’re saying that you guys that did everything right… you can’t even carry in a restaurant that serves alcohol anymore. We’re going to take away every ability for you to do all of the things that are part of your daily life, but for these people who are breaking the law, we should be lax on them because they haven’t shot someone.”

Sullivan’s also bothered by what she says is blatant information on the part of Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, who this week proclaimed that the state needs a waiting period law because a person in a heated situation can walk into a gun store and with the “proper documentation” can walk out with a gun. As Sullivan explains, what Bysiewicz left out is the fact that the “proper documentation” includes a permit-to-purchase or an “eligibility” certificate; a process that includes a background check and can take two months or longer to be issued. In other words, Connecticut law already has a built-in waiting period, at least for first-time buyers, and Sullivan says adding even more red-tape will only serve to hurt those who might find themselves with a sudden need for self-defense.

Be sure to check out the entire conversation with the CCDL’s Holly Sullivan in the video window below, and if you’re a Connecticut gun owner you should sign up to receive the CCDL’s action alerts at the organization’s website. Sullivan and the thousands of CCDL members are already doing a great job of defending the right to keep and bear arms in a very hostile legislative environment, but there’s plenty of challenges ahead and now is not a time for Second Amendment supporters to sit on the sidelines.

Lamont almost gets it right on violent crime

February 15, 2023 by Cam Edwards Leave a Comment

If these were the only public safety proposals offered by Gov. Ned Lamont and his Democratic allies in the legislature, gun owners in Connecticut would probably be breathing a sigh of relief. But Lamont’s calls to go after repeat, violent offenders comes after he’s laid out a laundry list of gun control measures targeting the state’s legal gun owners, which makes Tuesday’s announcement look more like an afterthought than anything else.

One day after another mass shooting, this time at Michigan State University, Gov. Ned Lamont and big-city mayors called Tuesday for a more extensive crackdown on gun crimes by repeat offenders.
The mayors are focusing on a narrow set of criminals — often already convicted felons — who are responsible for a large share of the shootings in Hartford, Waterbury, Bridgeport and New Haven. If the repeat offenders remained behind bars longer, they would not be on the streets to commit more crimes, the mayors said.
Of those arrested in Hartford last year for shootings, 39% were on pretrial release, 14% on probation and 5% on parole, the mayors said. The situation is similar in Waterbury, where 40% of those arrested for shootings were on probation and 30% were on pretrial release.
“This is about saving lives,’’ said Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin. “We know this is only one piece of the puzzle, but it’s an important piece. It means there has to be serious consequences for serious firearm offenses.’’

Again, I doubt you’ll find many responsible gun owners who’d disagree. The problem is that Lamont and his fellow gun prohibitionists want to treat peaceable gun owners as if they’re repeat, violent felons. The governor’s calling for a host of new laws that would criminalize common aspects of the right to keep and bear arms, from expanding the state’s ban on so-called assault weapons to prohibiting adults under the age of 21 from lawfully purchasing a firearm. As the Connecticut Citizens Defense League pointed out in its response to Lamont’s gun control agenda:

[T]he Governor’s proposals not only fall short of fixing the issue, but present flawed and misdirected policies that will actually worsen the very urban crime wave the Governor claims to be addressing.
CCDL has long advocated for early intervention and education. In 2017, CCDL revealed that a 20 year-old law requiring development of a school safety curriculum had never been implemented. That being the case, CCDL advocated that Public Act 19-5 (aka Ethan’s Law) contain language requiring the State Department of Education to finally develop that curriculum for our schools. The curriculum teaches Connecticut youth essential firearm safety including: not to touch firearms, managing peer pressure, and responsible actions around firearms. While CCDL continues its on-going mission for every Connecticut child to have access to this critical information, not one of the public schools in any of the cities run by mayors who surrounded the Governor at today’s press conference has implemented this life-saving curriculum.
The open carry of firearms has long been lawful, safe, and relatively rare in Connecticut. Most permit holders choose concealed carry, although some choose to open carry . In an awkward attempt to support banning open carry, Attorney General Tong referenced a singular incident from 2016 in which a Black legally-permitted man was stopped by Bridgeport Police when attempting to order lunch, without the police having any suspicion that he committed a crime. Dredging up a 7-year old incident of a law-abiding Black man seeking to exercise his constitutional rights without bothering anyone underscores that the administration is completely out of touch with the real issues of crime plaguing our state today.
Laws limiting the number of firearm transfers , as proposed today, often have tragic consequences. There are a multitude of reasons why a lawful gun owner may need to transfer numerous firearms at a time. An individual experiencing a mental health episode and seeking to temporarily relinquish possession of several firearms to another trusted individual or to a federal firearms licensee would be prohibited from doing so. A widow or widower may wish for their spouse’s firearms to go to a permitted adult child who may be better able to secure them. There are scores of reasons that simultaneous lawful transfers are necessary. Straw purchases are already illegal at both the state level and federal level. In the last legislative session, the Commission on Community Gun Violence Intervention and Prevention was created, yet it does not include a single seat for a representative of gun owners in this state. If the Governor was serious about finding real solutions to the state’s violent crime spike, he would invite us to the table. His continued failure to do so is telling.

The lion’s share of shootings in the state involve individuals who are already well-known to police and the local court system, but Lamont seems to view responsible gun ownership as a bigger problem. Even the proposals announced on Tuesday aren’t solely directed at violent criminals. Lamont and the Connecticut mayors on hand for his announcement also want to increase the criminal penalty for simple possession of a “large capacity” magazine or a home-built, unserialized firearm; both measures that could ensnare peaceable gun owners throughout the state.

You don’t fight crime by creating new criminal offenses carved out of the fundamental right to armed self-defense, but that’s exactly the strategy that Lamont is adopting in Connecticut. His crusade is less about public safety and more about eradicating legal gun ownership, but thankfully groups like the CCLD are fighting back at the statehouse and in federal court.

ATFs pistol brace rule used to challenge CT ban on “assault weapons”

February 6, 2023 by Cam Edwards Leave a Comment

The clock is ticking on the ATF’s mandate for owners of brace-equipped pistols to register their firearms as short-barreled rifles under the National Firearms Act, but while that edict is facing a legal challenge of its own it’s also spurred the Second Amendment Foundation and the Connecticut Citizens Defense League to file for an emergency restraining order and an injunction blocking enforcement of the state’s ban on so-called assault weapons.

As the CCDL explains:

ATF’s new rule impacts tens of thousands of Connecticut residents who are otherwise law-abiding, but who have now found themselves facing possible felony prosecution through no fault of their own. While residents of other states are able to register these firearms with the ATF, or change the short barrels for longer ones to make them legal, the ATF has stated that it will not permit any such registrations from Connecticut residents due to Connecticut’s “assault weapon” ban. Nor will changing out the barrels avoid redesignation as banned “assault weapons” under Connecticut law. As such, many thousands of Connecticut residents who were previously authorized by the Connecticut State Police’s Special Licensing and Firearms Unit to purchase these firearms, find themselves without the legal options had by residents of most other states.

The “assault weapons” ban was first challenged by CCDL, SAF, and several individual gun owners last fall, but the ATF’s new rule has given the case new urgency given the effect that it could have on thousands of law-abiding gun owners across the state.

“These three plaintiffs, along with tens of thousands of other good, law-abiding Connecticut residents, suddenly find themselves facing possible felony charges, all of which could have disastrous implications for them, their families, their careers, and their standing in the community. Until Tuesday, the firearms at issue were entirely lawful, owned by people who may now face detrimental personal damage due to state laws that are not only unclear and virtually impossible to comply with, but also in blatant and direct violation of the Connecticut and U.S. Constitutions,” says Holly Sullivan, President of the CCDL. “As such, we are imploring the federal court to step in to protect these otherwise lawful gunowners from being arrested under the new application of Connecticut’s egregious ban on so-called ‘assault weapons’ which are simply commonly owned modern sporting arms.”

The ATF rule isn’t the only threat that’s looming for those who lawfully purchased modern sporting rifles and other arms designated as “assault weapons” by the state. As we’ve been reporting, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont had been calling on lawmakers to revise the existing ban and remove the grandfather clause that allowed existing owners to maintain possession of their guns when the state’s ban first took effect back in 1993. That grandfather clause was kept in place when the state modified the ban, first in 2001 and again in 2013, but Lamont was adamant that the clause should be removed… at least until a couple of weeks ago, when he tweaked his proposal to instead add a number of new firearms to the current list of prohibited arms and to demand owners of “assault weapons” manufactured before 1994 register them with the state.

Lamont also wants to make possession of a “large capacity” magazine a felony offense under Connecticut law, and given the Democratic majorities in Hartford gun owners are facing an uphill fight defending their Second Amendment rights in the state legislature. The federal court system will hopefully provide more protection for these gun owners than their own lawmakers, who are intent on nullifying the right to keep and bear arms as much as possible. Even with the request for an emergency hearing, it could be a few weeks before a federal judge hears the pleas of Connecticut gun owners, but we’ll keep our eyes on this case and let you know of any updates when they happen.