Gun rights group loses a round in fight over permit delays
A federal appeals court on Wednesday vacated a lower court decision last year in favor of a gun owners and second amendment activists who complained in a suit against the state that an emergency pandemic order suspending fingerprinting of gun permit applicants violated the Constitutional protection of gun ownership.
The lower court decision on June 8, 2020, ordered the state police to resume fingerprinting of prospective gun licensees, something the state had planned to do a week later.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said nothing about the legal clash between gun rights and Gov. Ned Lamont’s declaration of a public health emergency. Rather, it declared the lower court order moot because by the time it was issued, the fingerprinting by police of prospective gun owners had resumed, or was about to resume, effectively eliminating the dispute.
The suit was brought by the non-profit Connecticut Citizens Defense League and a half dozen Connecticut gun owners. The group has been complaining to or fighting with the Lamont administration over gun ownership rights since March 10, 2020, when, in the early days of the pandemic, the governor allowed the state police and local police departments to stop fingerprinting gun permit applicants.
The state argued the temporary halt in fingerprinting could slow the spread of COVID-19 and enable police agencies to divert resources elsewhere during a public health emergency.
The gun owners and advocates sued and asked Judge Jeffrey Meyer to issue a preliminary injunction ordering the resumption of fingerprinting, arguing that, since it is a requirement of gun ownership under state law, Lamont’s order was unconstitutional.
But before Meyer ruled on June 8 of last year, the half dozen or so local police departments named in the suit resumed taking fingerprints, the state police said they would resume fingerprinting on June 15 and Lamont said he would lift his fingerprint order on the same date.
Meyer issued his injection anyway on the grounds that the announcement by the state police and governor were voluntary and reversible depending on the direction of the broader public health emergency. The federal appeals
court disagreed on the likelihood of the state reversing itself and vacated Meyer’s order. The appeals court also parted from Meyer, saying the Connecticut Citizens Defense League didn’t have legal standing to sue because as an advocacy group rather than a prospective gun owners, it was not directly aggrieved by the fingerprint delays.
State Attorney General William Tong, whose office defended the state, said the appellate decision vindicates the state police and Lamont.
“Our Constitution is clear, the Governor has broad authority to protect Connecticut families during a public health emergency,” Tong said. “The Second Circuit Court of Appeals got this decision right — these plaintiffs had no standing and Governor Lamont’s orders since the onset of the pandemic in March have been lawful and justified.”
Holly Sullivan, president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, could not be reached Wednesday, but there was little to indicate the group’s dispute with the state over gun licensing is over. Her group was back in court last week, arguing that the state is dragging it’s feet on gun permitting matters. The state police responded that they are taking a number of steps, including long-overdue automation, to speed the process.
The ongoing dispute over delays in buying guns and permitting owners is taking place during a year in which law enforcement officers said citizens across society appear to be trying to buy record numbers of guns. Gun retailers complain delays preventing them from making sales.