Balanced AW News Articles

Balanced Articles with some understanding and insight of the issue.

Sportsmen and gun enthusiasts across Connecticut have no better friend at the Capitol than Rep. Ronald San Angelo, R-Naugatuck.

This week, Rep. San Angelo came to the rescue of the Second Amendment one more time after the Senate sent to the House a bill that would have prevented law-abiding people from buying any of more than three dozen models of semi-automatic weapons for sport or self-defense just because the guns look like "assault weapons."

The measure was touted by pious gun-control zealots in the upper chamber as anti-crime legislation, even though these "copycat" weapons have never been used in the commission of a crime anywhere in the United States and even though Waterbury State's Attorney John Connelly and state Public Safety Commissioner Arthur Spada said the bill would not reduce crime one iota.

Rep. San Angelo was the driving force behind the compromise, which the House passed 148-1. Among other things, the bill mirrors the 1994 federal law that bans assault weapons, prohibits the sale of armor-piercing or incendiary ammunition, establishes a computerized system to track bullets fired from guns used in crimes, and restores a proposal creating a single state-issued gun permit. That last provision had been endorsed by the Legislature's Public Safety Committee, but it was inexplicably removed from the Senate's version of the bill.

Though greatly outnumbered by gun-control advocates at the Capitol, Rep. San Angelo realized what was at stake (the rights of law-abiding gun owners) and what the Senate was trying to do (wreck years of delicate, often difficult compromises on gun issues), and worked to craft legislation with which both sides can live. The compromise now goes to the Senate.

Rep. San Angelo demonstrated that anything's possible when politicians are willing to fight for their principles. And for that, his state should be grateful, and his constituents in Naugatuck, Oxford, Middlebury and Southbury should be proud.

HARTFORD — After about three hours of lengthy, sometimes emotional debate over a controversial proposal to prohibit the sale of all semiautomatic assault weapons, the House took the proposal off the floor, rewrote it and came back two hours later to pass a compromise bill.

The near-unanimous vote, 148-1, came at 10:40 p.m., after two hours of rewriting the bill. The bill lets the current assault weapon ban, passed by the Legislature in 1993, stand. The ban includes many assault weapons but not all. The proposal would have expanded the ban to include all assault weapons. The bill also included other new gun-related provisions.

Rep. Ron San Angelo, R-Naugatuck, led a passionate argument against the bill, saying its passage would destroy four years of compromise between sportsmen and gun control advocates. He said the vote shows that members of the House recognize the compromises that have been made on gun issues.

"It shows the respect that they have that we've been able to put together agreements over the past four years," San Angelo said.

The compromise bill deletes the names of guns under the expanded list of weapons that would be banned from sale. The list passed by the Legislature in 1993 still stands. The list of assault weapons banned by the federal government in 1994 also stands. The federal ban would expire in two years, but the compromise bill would keep the federal ban indefinitely.

The compromise bill also would prohibits the sale of armor-piercing or incendiary ammunition. It also would beef up the current law for surrender of guns held by people under a restraining order. Current law requires people under a restraining order to surrender their weapon within 48 hours. The proposal requires local police to be notified that the gun should be expected to be turned in.

The bill also sets up a computerized system of all bullets fired from guns used in crimes. And it simplifies the gun permit process, bringing it all under the state jurisdiction but providing local sites to apply for permits.

The revised bill was proposed at about 8 p.m. when it looked like Democrats did not have enough votes to pass the measure. The debate was stopped and resumed at 10 p.m. with a compromise package agreeable to gun-control advocates and sportsmen, who own and use assault weapons for competition and collection.

House members rewrote the bill that the Senate had passed on May 25 in a 25-to-10 vote, so it goes back to the Senate.

San Angelo thanked Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, proponent of the expanded ban, for agreeing to rewrite the bill to forge a compromise. Lawlor said the compromise bill was "a step forward" while "recognizing the rights of legitimate gun owners."

Gun rights advocates say the expanded ban would have further erode a person's right to bear arms. Gun rights advocates used protests, letters, e-mails and phone calls to make their concerns known in the Legislature.

The House has passed several gun-related compromise bills that have become law, such as the measure to allow police to seize guns from people who are determined to be mentally ill and of danger to themselves or others.

Those compromises typically were worked out with San Angelo and Lawlor, at the table with Second Amendment enthusiasts and gun control advocates. Although they ended the night on equal footing, early Wednesday evening, Lawlor and San Angelo were far apart.

"I guess in being here nine years, this is probably the most important piece of legislation I've ever dealt with," San Angelo said early in the debate. "The Senate wants to destroy the compromises this chamber has worked on."

San Angelo argued that expansion of the ban would not make the streets much safer, because not that many assault weapons are used in crimes, but it would penalize law-abiding citizens who use the guns legally. About 39 "look-alike" assault weapons were fond to have been used in crimes. He pleaded with Lawlor to reject the measure and sit down with him to work out a compromise.

"Gang members and thugs don't use assault weapons," San Angelo said. They are too expensive and too big to carry, he said.

San Angelo noted that a gun task force he proposed last year has taken more than 400 illegal guns off the street in the past 10 months.

"This is one of those issues where there are irreconcilable differences," Lawler responded. Lawlor said the bill would tighten loopholes in the law that allowed some assault weapons to be sold under state law. Manufacturers have made weapons to get around the description of assault weapons banned by the state, Lawlor said.

But apparently not enough Democrats were willing to vote Lawlor's after other Democrats such as Reps. Michael Jarjura, D-74th District, from Waterbury, and Marie Lopez Kirkley-Bey, D-Hartford, spoke against the measure, Lawlor called for a hold on the bill. It appeared he didn't have the votes to pass the expansion on the ban.