Lawmakers Hear from Gun Rights Supporters from Durham

This week, Patch has been reporting on testimony provided by local residents at the state Captiol as lawmakers hold public hearings on gun violence prevention, school safety and mental health.

Six local residents alone provided testimony before the Gun Violence Prevention Group, which met on Monday, Jan. 28. We've reported on the testimony of the following residents:

James Rossi

Stuart Keating

Lisa Davenport

The following is additional testimony, which can be found here as well.

I am a CT sportsman that has held a valid hunting license in the state of CT since 1968. I am also a member of the New Haven Raccoon Club where I can safely practice target shooting and a member of the NRA. I purchase a hunting and fishing combination license every year in order to enjoy the natural resources of this state and feel strongly that I need to oppose and or approve some of the bills that you will be discussing soon. Rather than send a separate email for each bill I would prefer to list them all in this single email. Please log my approval or opposition to the following bills; 

Approve bill #; 

HB-5165 

HB-5176 

HB-5179 

HB-5269 

HB-5466 

HB-5377 

HB-5468 

Oppose Bill #, 

HB-5112 

HB-5268 

HB-5452 

SB-42 

SB-122 

SB-124 

SB-140 

SB-161 

Please keep in mind one individual that should not have had access to any guns and should have never been encouraged to use guns, unfortunately caused the tragic event in Newtown. 

Please do not act without careful consideration of all the facts, because CT. Sportsmen generate a considerable amount of revenue to the state and local businesses through purchases of not only licenses but other associated goods and services. 

I feel strongly that some of the above bills that I am opposed to, will deny me of my rights which are protected under the second amendment of the constitution. 

Sincerely, 

James Boczar 

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Dear Representative/Senator,

I’m writing to express my sincere opposition to the following proposed gun bills as well as any others which infringe on our Constitutional rights to bear arms to protect our families,busineses,to hunt and otherwise enjoy the shooting sports. HB-5112: Disclosure of names and addresses of honest citizens who posses handgun permits.handgun.This is a gross violation of privacy and serves to ostracize handgun owners. A most horrible bill. 

HB-5268 and SB-140: Bills to require liability insurance for gun owners. Also to require sales tax on ammunition.The insurance is required to pay for the victims of gun. Bull-crap proposal.Honest gun owners to pay for the results of criminal acts? Make the criminals pay with stiffer penalties. Why punish gun owners? The later is the major objective of current gun proposals.We already pay a sales tax on ammunition and in addition contribute to the federally mandated Pittman- Robinson act for conservation. Remember the results of the unjust tax on tea?

HB-122: A horrible proposal which restricts firearms to only fire one round. This bill is an example of a legislator who has only limited knowledge of the reality of firearms usage in Connecticut and unfortunately is taking advantage of Sandy Hook for political gain. We have tens of thousands of hunters in our state who go afield with guns which by necessity hold more than one round. On any given weekend we have hundreds of individuals who participate in the shooting sports such as sporting clays, skeet and doubles trap,combat pistol shoots, and military rifle events. All of these require weapons to fire more than one shoot.

Additionally I strongly oppose bills SB-1,SB-42,SB-124, and SB-161.

I do support the following proposed bills: HB-5165,HB-5176,HB-5179,HB-5269,HB-5377,HB-5466, and HB-5468.

I do pray that will read this letter and commit to a decision that will uphold the second amendment and that will not infringe upon our right to bear arms. 

Remember that after the horror of the Southington home invasion many citizens purchased firearms to protect themselves and their families, and they found comfort in the possession of same. Since then Connecticut has eliminated the death penalty. Now a violent felon can use a gun to commit murder and not fear the penalty of death.Reinstate the death penalty.This will most assuredly reduce gun vilolence The major push to reduce gun violence is to punish the good, law-abiding citizens and infringe upon our rights.

We have numerous robberies with criminals using guns and have even witnessed brutal executions. Clearly these types of crimes would be greatly limited if criminals had to fear armed owners, including home owners.

There is no sure way to eliminate violence in our society. Most of the violent gun crimes are committed with illegal guns and are the result of turf wars over drug sales and other gang-related issues. Stricter enforcement of our laws is required. The violence and gore on TV(criminal minds,various CSI’s), and movies (hunger games), and video games has desensitized our population towards violence. Our societies loss of moral values, acceptance of drug use,and the downgrading of religion have all contributed to the crime and violence. Most mentally ill people are on the streets are maintained on drugs (antidepressants). Additional gun laws are not needed. The large majority of mass murders have been perpetrated by very mentally disturbed people. We can’t expect to violate the physician- patient confidentiality but we can educate our population to report these individuals to the proper authorities for help.

I would also like to comment on the so-called “assault rifles”. The civilian rifles fire in a semiautomatic mode and are no different than the accepted semi-automatic rifles. They just look different and this is what scares non-gun owners.These are just contemporary rifles which feature a pistol grip. This feature is very desirable when confronting a home invader. You don’t have time to carefully aim(especially in poor light), but rather have to shoot fast and from the hip. The pistol grip just facilitates this. These use of these rifles actually greatly reduces the number of rifles neede as they are modular in design. This means an owner, instead of having 3-4 rifles needs only one, because barrels can be simply changed for the proper use (target, small game hunting,bid game hunting, and just plinking). We must have access to the best rifles and shotguns available for self defence).

Personally I would like to close with another reason as to why gun owners are so concerned with proposed restraining regulations, namely our Federal Government. As you may know in order to pursue their current anti-gun agenda they(at the very highest levels) permitted the shipment of over two thousand illegal guns to Mexico. This act resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Mexicans and at least one American. Our attorney general refused to cooperate with congress and was bailed out by our president claiming executive privilege. Before Sandy Hook our attorney general met in New Haven with our governor to discuss gun violence.

This just places doubts in the minds of gun owners as to the respect our leaders have for our Constitution and the Second Amendment. By far the hunters of America comprise the largest standing army in the world and we are sincere in the love of our Nation and Constitution. Thank you.

Thomas W. Hudyma

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Thank you for taking the time to here from another concerned Gun owner from Durham CT. I really wanted to weigh in if I may And let you all know I strongly oppose any and all restrictions on what firearms can be owned in this state and the of number rounds that any given gun may hold in their feeding devices . 

Not to take up a lot of your time I feel there are some things that could be done to insure that the wrong people don’t get their hands on any guns. The one thing I would recommend is adding an “assault weapon “endorsement to the pistol permit this would be similar to the CDL driver’s License in that in order to get this endorsement to purchase and own assault weapons as defined by CT. law you will need to own a gun safe or locker with a key lock minimum and this is a win for all parties as there will now have allot more guns locked up where Evil people don’t have the access. Just think if Adam Lanza’s mom had here guns locked up as they should have been we would not be having this conversation right now. I feel with the strongest of conviction that the proposal above will net much greater results then say taking away pistol grips bayonet lugs and or threaded barrels. This also will appease the pro-gun crowd as they again with their endorsement will be able to collect the firearms that only people in other states can collect. 

NO one wants what happened in Newtown to happen ever again ,but we all need to work together and come up with real solutions not just punish law abiding gun owners to make CT residents feel safer nothing we do can bring back those Angles and if I thought for one second I could Id Melt my prized gun collection tomorrow. 

Thank you for taking the time to here from me And I hope we all come together and stop this witch hunt against people who did no wrong and will NEVER do any wrong 

Thanks again 

Jack Trifilo