“A FREE GOVERNMENT?”
by Sharon Rondeau
(May 22, 2013) — Several organizations which believe their Second Amendment and equal protection rights have been violated by a new gun statute signed by Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy last month filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in federal court in Bridgeport.
Since the law was passed on April 4, firearms dealers have reported widespread shortages of ammunition, and local police departments have described surges in applications for pistol permits. The day prior to the final vote in the Connecticut General Assembly, the number of residents buying firearms and ammunition was described as “insane.”
Directly after passage, a disabled man from New London, where seven families lost their homes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the city could take them on the premise of eminent domain, filed a lawsuit with the intent of overturning the new restriction on the AR-15 rifle, which he said is “particularly suited for disabled persons in order to engage in lawful use of firearms, including hunting, recreational and competitive shooting and personal self-defense.”
The homes taken from the plaintiffs in Kelo v. City of New London in 2005 were demolished and the area described two years ago as “a dump.”
The disabled man also claimed that limiting the number of rounds to ten deprives law-abiding citizens of the constitutional right to own and use firearms.
Before the legislature passed the new measures, Connecticut was already among the strictest states regarding a person’s ability to legally own a firearm. More than 100 types of weapons are now banned in the Constitution State.
On May 13, The Post & Email reported that a copy of a person’s birth certificate is required to renew a pistol permit, which is more than Obama had to supply in order to seek the highest office in the land. His long-form birth certificate, posted on the White House website on April 27, 2011, has been declared a forgery by an experienced detective leading an investigation by the Maricopa County, AZ Cold Case Posse.
Several versions of the image printed on different safety paper backgrounds have been submitted in a case awaiting a hearing in the Alabama Supreme Court.
The Connecticut Citizens Defense League (CCDL), whom The Post & Email interviewed prior to the passage of the bills, is a party to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, as is the National Rifle Association (NRA), which called the new law “draconian.”
The General Assembly called the bill “An Act Concerning Gun Violence Prevention and Children’s Safety.”
Both firearms outlets and private individuals are named as plaintiffs in the case, with numerous state’s attorneys, including Stephen J. Sedensky, III, who is involved in the investigation into the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on December 14, 2012 which prompted Connecticut, New York, Colorado and Maryland to pass new gun restrictions.
Within a week of the law’s passage, at least one gun retailer said it will leave Connecticut, where gun manufacturing has been a major industry “for generations.” Hartford’s Colt Firearms had sold revolvers to the Texas Rangers and “helped settle the West.”
The plaintiffs claim that the bill was passed hurriedly without proper time for public comment and review. “The Act irrationally bans pistols, rifles, shotguns, and magazines that are commonly used for lawful purposes by countless law-abiding citizens in Connecticut and throughout the United States,” their attorney, Brian T. Stapleton, who has also filed a challenge to New York’s SAFE Act, passed hastily in January and without regard to police officers who routinely carry magazine clips which are now outlawed.
The Preamble to the Connecticut Constitution reads:
The People of Connecticut acknowledging with gratitude, the good providence of God, in having permitted them to enjoy a free government; do, in order more effectually to define, secure, and perpetuate the liberties, rights and privileges which they have derived from their ancestors; hereby, after a careful consideration and revision, ordain and establish the following constitution and form of civil government.
“Article First,” Section 15 reads:
Every citizen has a right to bear arms in defense of himself and the state.
A press release on the lawsuit from the CCDL seeks “immediate injunctive relief” from the provisions of the law.