Tens of thousands of Connecticut residents are refusing to register their firearms in defiance of new gun control laws and law enforcement officers in that state and others are simply refusing to enforce the recently imposed restrictions.
In December 2012, the nation was horrified by the merciless killings of a classroom of young children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. In response, the Democratic state legislature approved sweeping new gun control laws and Gov. Dan Malloy signed them into law. Several other states followed suit, including New York, Maryland and Colorado.
In addition to banning new sales of many types of firearms and larger capacity magazines that were previously legal, the state is also requiring residents who legally purchased those weapons and magazines to register them with the state.
For many Connecticut residents, that is a bridge too far and they are refusing to comply with the law. Gun rights groups are standing with them.
“The revolt is underway. Tens of thousands of people in Connecticut have intentionally missed the deadline. They are not registering. Some of them actually said they would not when they were at the hearing when the law was being considered in the legislature,” said Gun Owners of America Executive Director Larry Pratt.
Pratt says the backlash does not stop there. He says Connecticut state lawmakers from both parties who supported the new gun laws are facing fierce tests at the ballot box.
“Almost all of the RINOs in the State Senate that voted for the measure are being opposed in the primary,” said Pratt. “Democrats, you might have to face some angry voters in November, but Republicans are looking over their shoulder right now.”
He also says that Connecticut and other states with new gun control laws will have a tough time enforcing them because of a growing resentment towards the law among police officers.
“Two hundred fifty police (in Connecticut) have signed a letter that they are not going to enforce the law. They have no intention of collecting anyone’s firearms,” said Pratt, who notes that the resistance from law enforcement in Colorado is even stronger.
“All but two of the state’s county sheriffs have said, ‘We’re not enforcing the law.’ To the surprise, I think, of a lot of legislators, it turns out lawmen are not particularly enamored with gun control. After all, they own guns personally. A lot of them enjoy recreational use of guns, and for them to be put in the position of collecting guns for some liberal ideologue in the legislature, they didn’t really sign up for that,” said Pratt.
Gun Owners of America is urging residents in Connecticut, Colorado and other states to reject new laws requiring the registration of newly illegal weapons. But at a time when many on the right condemn President Obama for alleged selective enforcement of laws, are those same conservatives guilty of a double standard in this situation?
Pratt says the Constitution provides the road map in both situations.
“Frankly, I don’t have a constitutional problem with what the president is doing. We can deal with him and his party using the means provided in the forthcoming elections. If we end up sending a tsunami wave over his party and making his last two years in office totally miserable, that’s the way the system permits it to be done,” said Pratt.
“Same thing in Connecticut. People are saying, ‘I’m prepared to go to jail.’ Well, if you get so many tens of thousands of people saying that, it becomes difficult to imagine how that (many arrests) can happen, especially if there aren’t any police around to arrest them in the beginning,” he said.
“I think it’s an American’s right to exercise his conscience. He has to be prepared to take the consequences, just like Martin Luther King. He exercised his conscience. (Rosa) Parks went and sat down right in the front of the bus. Now she was taken off the bus and escorted away and she was put in jail for a bit. She was prepared to take the consequences, but she had decided, ‘No more.’ The people of Connecticut, I think, are in the same frame of mind,” said Pratt.
