Lamont proposal could bring clarity to open carry gun rules
NEWTOWN – A ban on carrying firearms in the open to public protests and other “sensitive” locations such as polling places proposed by Gov. Ned Lamont would achieve an objective that has eluded the Newtown Action Alliance for eight years.
“Hallelujah,” said Po Murray, chairwoman of the Newtown Action Alliance, whose gun violence prevention group has been trying since 2014 to ban the open carry of firearms in Newtown. “The threat of political violence and incidents of armed intimidation have increased during the Trump years…so it’s really important that our elected leaders ensure that we can go to the polls safely and are not intimidated by people carrying guns.”
The Newtown-based trade association for the firearms industry disagreed, calling Lamont’s proposed open carry ban and much of the rest of his gun control initiatives announced last week “a solution in search of a problem.”
“Where is the evidence that law abiding citizens who have a carry permit is a problem?” said Lawrence Keane, senior vice president and general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. “How does this stop gun crime from taking place?”
Keane was referring to a series of crimefighting investments and gun control proposals announced by Lamont, including $64 million to hire more police, reduce juvenile crime and revive a dormant gun-trafficking task force.
Lamont’s gun violence initiatives include tightening Connecticut’s ban on firearms without serial numbers known as “ghost guns,” creating a license for gun dealers so Hartford can oversee their compliance with state law, making it easier for police to ask someone who is openly carrying a firearm to show a permit, and expanding the assault weapon ban to include pre-1993 rifles and rifles with arm braces.
While Keane said the NSSF had no issues with Lamont reviving the state’s gun tracing task force to stop illegal guns from entering Connecticut, Keane faulted the rest of the governor’s gun control proposals for “suggesting the problem with crime in Connecticut is caused by the legal ownership of firearms.” Murray disagreed.
“The governor is right. We can’t solve the issue of violent crime without the regulation of guns,” she said.
Lamont’s announcement comes after year of heavy gun sale activity across the United States and in Connecticut, which often trails the national trend because of tough gun control measures adopted after the 2012 massacre of 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook
Elementary School in Newtown.
Nationwide, 2021 was the second-biggest year for gun sale activity growth since the FBI began collecting annual background check data in 1999. In Connecticut, gun sale activity climbed to a five-year high in 2021, fueled by what the NSSF believes is people’s concern that police cannot keep them safe, and that gun control proposals touted by Democrats will restrict people’s Second Amendment freedoms.
“We see the claim by gun control groups and anti-gun politicians that the increase in firearms sales is responsible for the increase in crime,” Keane said. “The exact opposite is the truth.”
Lamont disagreed.
“We have more damn guns in this state than ever before,” he said during a Feb. 7 press conference in Hartford. “We have more legal guns, we have more illegal guns. You’re not tough on crime if you’re weak on guns.”
At stake is Connecticut’s $1.5 billion gun industry, Keane said.
“Connecticut is the historic home of the firearms industry and it helped Connecticut become a manufacturing power house, but companies are leaving the state,” said Keane. “You don’t see anybody starting new factories in Connecticut. You see them leaving.”
Despite Connecticut’s reputation as one of the nation’s toughest gun law states, Connecticut’s firearms industry outperformed 44 other states in economic output in 2020 when the numbers were adjusted for population, according to the NSSF. Connecticut also led New England in the average wage for a gun industry worker at $89,000 and in the $6 million in federal excise tax paid in 2020, the NSSF said.
Newtown’s debate
It’s too soon to say how Lamont’s proposal to ban the carrying of firearms in polling places, public buildings, public transit, and at demonstrations such as rallies and vigils will affect the debate in Newtown.
Murray said the open carry ban had a better chance of becoming law at the state level than it did at the local level.
“We would be able to demonstrate without counter-protesters showing up and intimidating us with their guns,” Murray said. “What about our First Amendment rights?”
Keane said such a ban would discriminate against permit-holding gun owners.
“They have been vetted and they are exercising their right under the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms – and to bear arms means to carry it on your person,” Keane said. “To suggest the problem with crime in Connecticut is caused by legal ownership of firearms is preposterous.”