Gun owners in Connecticut this week face a new round of gun control measures that clamp down on Second Amendment rights. Signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont (D) in June, the new laws target gun freedoms in two primary ways.
The first is a ban on open carry of firearms, and the second limits gun purchases to no more than three for an individual within 30 days. There are some exceptions for instructors and others.
The new law was immediately challenged in court.
According to NPR, State Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney (D) lauded the new restrictions but declared they do not go far enough. He said his goal is to “pursue further limits on monthly gun purchases.”
Looney also endorsed a microstamping requirement for weapons in the state. If implemented, this would follow Maryland’s wholly unsuccessful attempt at forcing the program to work for 15 years before unceremoniously dropping it.
It cost $5 million, and no crimes were solved using the sketchy technology.
Connecticut was the site of the horrific 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, and anti-gun activists have zeroed in on the state ever since. The 2013 gun law passed in the incident’s wake is also being contested in court.
Besides purchase restrictions and the ban on open carry, the new laws toughen state storage mandates and increase legal punishments for repeat firearm offenders.
While tougher penalties on certain offenses may be effective, the rest of the measures are simply window dressing in the state’s push to be tough on gun rights. All the feel-good measures in the world accomplish nothing if the true goal is to suppress violent crime.
However, if the goal is to harass law-abiding gun owners, then they hit the mark very well.
