SB 1405 ("Assault Weapons", Magazines, .50 Cal. guns) DEAD! AP News Article

At today's meeting of the Public Safety Committee this bill was listed as the last on the  agenda. The committee put it on HOLD, which meant NO ACTION  since today was the Deadline for reporting bills out of Committee.

Since the Public Hearing on Tuesday, the Coalition of CT Sportsmen and NRA lobbyists have been doing heavy lobbying and providing clarifying information presented by YOU at the Public Hearing. We estimate about 175 sportsmen came to the hearing. You were well dressed, articulate, and responsive to questions designed to "shake " you.  No mention was made by you trying to "improve" the bill and it was obvious to the Committee members we ARE opposed to ANY expansion of gun laws not legitimate. In my 20+ years of  lobbying guns, this was one of, if not the best, coordinated, unified and well attended hearings. The legislators WERE impressed!

Our vote count was close (always conservative), but we were confident we had the 12 needed for a tie (Ties kill a bill). As it turned out we had more than we expected! The Committee Republicans caucused for about 1/2 hour on all the bills; the Democrats were in for about 80 minutes. The gun bill was
not the only controversial issue, but had high prominence. We don't know as yet the positions of all the legislators in committee discussion, but we obviously had more Democratic support than Sen. Penn expected. The political  axiom is: If you don't have the votes, don't call the bill. Since the bill was on the agenda, some action had to be taken and HOLD is equal to No  Action. This also stopped about a two hour committee public debate on the bill, which was going nowhere.

Much of this support was due to YOUR presence at the public hearing,  phone  calls, letters, e-mail and personal contact with your legislators. It Works!

Comments made by legislators indicated that constituent presence at the hearing had significant importance. Those that lobbied your legislators at the hearing  and elsewhere are to be applauded - you saved the day!

Is it all over? Hardly. This bill will resurface again and throughout the session (ends June 6) and will have to be continuously fought. This is the beginning. We won round one.

To everyone who attended the hearing Tuesday and/or contacted the state legislators -  Thank you. The next step is data collection demonstrating how futile, ineffective and disrupting this copy-cat California Law is. We're telling legislators to visit www.calnra.org - not to read gunowners comments, but to read press releases from major CA news organizations demonstrating the chaos,  the futility, and constant expansion of this law.  WE don't need that in CT!

Lastly you need to thank ALL the members of the Public Safety Committee for their wisdom in defeating this bill - particularly if your state Senator or Representative is a member of the committee. AND, ask them to keep you informed as to NEW developments concerning the gun issue - there will be many!

Remember - NOTHING is dead until the session ends!!!!!!

Bills that were approved (JF) by the committee and may become vehicles for an AW amendment are:

14.  S.B. No. 1379 (RAISED) AN ACT CREATING A FIREARMS EVIDENCE DATABANK. Ballistic Fingerprinting (cartridge case/bullet forensics - only applicable to current confiscated/found/police guns, but easily expandable to all guns as in MD, MA, NY.) OPPOSE

15.  S.B. No. 1402 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING A SINGLE STATE HANDGUN PERMIT.  (State Police bill, SUPPORT)

Committee Rejects Gun Control Measure

Associated Press
March 22, 2001

HARTFORD Conn. (AP) - A bill that would impose new restrictions on the sale of assault weapons misfired Thursday in a legislative committee, but supporters said the measure was far from dead.

The gun control bill, supported by top leaders in the Democrat-controlled Legislature, was not acted on by a 5 p.m. deadline in the Public Safety Committee.

Connecticut is one of a handful of states that have banned assault weapons, under a 1993 law that advocates said has become a national model.

Supporters said the law needs to be updated because gun makers have designed lookalike weapons that are similar to those that are banned, but modified just enough to be legal.

Opponents called the bill's defeat a major statement and said it showed that a new ban on assault weapons was not needed.

None of the bill's supporters "could show one shred of evidence that the past bill did any good - let alone that the new one would reduce crime in any significant way," said Rep. Ronald San Angelo, R-Naugatuck.

The defeated bill "solves a problem that doesn't exist," San Angelo said.

The Democratic co-chairmen of Public Safety supported the bill, but conceded they did not have the votes in their own party to approve it.

"Honestly the votes were not there today," said Rep. Stephen Dargan, D-West Haven, the committee's House chairman.

Dargan and his co-chairman, Sen. Alvin W. Penn, D-Bridgeport, said they would revive the measure in the next several weeks as an amendment to a related bill.

Both men and another key gun control supporter, Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, D-East Haven, said they were confident the assault weapon ban would be adopted before the Legislature adjourns June 6.

"This is just Round One," Penn said. "You'll definitely see it again."

But San Angelo said Democrats should consider the action taken by the Public Safety Committee before reviving the bill.

Committee members "are responsible for public safety and gun control, and they didn't approve it, so that's strong message that the bill itself didn't make a lot of sense," San Angelo said.

But Lawlor and other advocates said gun-control bills traditionally have had trouble in Public Safety. The 1993 law also failed in Public Safety, they said.

The 22-member panel, which considers a range of law enforcement issues, includes a number of conservative Democrats. All but one Republican on the panel opposed the new ban on assault weapons.

"It has always been the case that the gun lobby does have a pretty good vote count in Public Safety, so in the past they've always been able to...stop any gun bill," Lawlor said.

Sentiments in the full Legislature favor gun control, Lawlor and other Democrats said. The top four Democratic leaders generally support gun control laws, and one of the four - Senate Majority Leader George C. Jepsen, D-Stamford - is a co-sponsor of the assault weapon ban.

Robert Crook, a spokesman for the Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen, called the proposed ban "just another attempt to make it more difficult for legitimate gun owners to buy guns."

The proposal is part of a package of gun-control measures, including a requirement that anyone subject to a restraining order immediately turn in their guns.

The restraining-order bill, and another bill to impose new standards for issuing gun permits, are being considered by the Judiciary Committee. Supporters said the assault-weapon provision could be added to either bill.

Besides closing the assault-weapon loophole, the measure that failed in Public Safety would have banned long-range, .50-caliber sniper weapons and .50-caliber armor piercing and incendiary ammunition.

AP-ES-03-22-01 1813EST