Pro-Gun Group Calls Malloy's Proposal Unconstitutional

The following is a press release from Connecticut Carry, a North Branford based pro-gun rights organization.

Since the Newtown Massacre, Governor Malloy has promised that the gun control agenda he has been pushing would be done in a bi-partisan manner in the legislature. Along the way we have seen all manner of reckless behavior from the legislature and from the administration including a rush to try and use an ‘emergency certification’ to push through bills without proper public hearings. Today, the Governor released a set of proposed legislation that he intends to be pushed through the legislature. This would also circumvent the task force and advisory panels currently assigned to provide legislative recommendations on these issues. 

This is a clear attempt at an abuse of the Governor’s office and of the separation of powers in our government. Laws and legislation should come from the legislature and be from the people of Connecticut. There is a clear interest in keeping the enforcement arm of the government from also deciding the laws. The laws are supposed to be decided on by the people.

We must reason that the Governor is feeling the pressure from the 100:1 turnout against his agenda at the legislature for public hearings and the overwhelming public opinion in Connecticut that the proposed bills are not welcome. Perhaps he is feeling the fleeting emotional crisis of the citizens of Connecticut and he knows that he won’t be able to take advantage of emotion as leverage against our rights for much longer. It is clear that his administration does not want to ‘let a good crisis go to waste’.

The proposals that Governor Malloy makes are full of unconstitutional and unenforceable edicts.

• District of Columbia v Heller has already established that firearms in ‘common use’ are not subject to bans. They equated common use specifically with ‘military use’, so the Governor’s insistence on the repeated lie that the AR-15 is a military weapon is in line with his not understanding the case law out there.
• The ‘high capacity magazines’ he seeks to ban and confiscate are not ‘high capacity’, they are standard capacity. They are also in common use, and the Governor should know better than to think that the government can institute ex post facto bans. At the very least, the state would have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to compensate every gun owner for every magazine they turn in.  Connecticut does not have themoney necessary to implement such a ban.
• ‘Safe storage’ laws are unconstitutional. Ask New York state. Their law was deemed by the New York Supreme Court to be ‘unenforceable’ since it was unconstitutional to require residents to keep all of their firearms locked up. (Colaiacovo v Dormer - 2008)

Instead of haphazardly throwing his gun banning agenda around, Governor Malloy should be paying attention to our proposal to open up the background check systems and make them freely and readily available to the public. He might actually meet some of his stated goals without having to make the residents of the State of Connecticut spend millions of dollars fighting his laws in Federal court.

More information on this issue can be found on http://ctcarry.com.