Following the
slaughter of the innocents at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Malloy succeeded in
passing a bill through Connecticut’s General Assembly rather quickly. The
National Rifle Association (NRA), the bete noir of Malloy and Connecticut’s two
U.S. Senators, Dick Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, protested as expected.
Following passage of an “assault weapons” ban among the most
restrictive in the nation, Malloy appeared on CNN’s show “State of the Union” and
fragged both the gun industry, some of it still operating in
Connecticut, and the NRA. “What this is about,” said Malloy, “is the ability of
the gun industry to sell as many guns to as many people as possible—even if
they are deranged, even if they are mentally ill, even if they have a criminal
background. They don’t care. They want to sell guns,” apparently to Malloy’s
friends.
In a letter to Malloy, Joe
Bartozzi, the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the oldest family owned
and operated firearms manufacturer in America, O.F. Mossberg & Sons,
located in North Haven, Connecticut, begged to differ. His company, Mr.
Bartozzi wrote, supported measures to prevent access to firearms
prohibited to criminals and other at-risk people, repairing and updating the
National Instant Check System (NICS), making available to the NICS data base
system relevant mental health records and restraining order status and
enforcing current laws against the illegal possession of weapons. He reminded
Mr. Malloy that his company has already distributed, free of charge, “over nine
and a half million firearm locking devices to help gun owners keep their
firearms securely stored and inaccessible to children or at rick individuals in
their homes.” While Mossberg & Sons continues to maintain its corporate
headquarters in New Haven, the company has moved its manufacturing production
to a Texas facility in response to new firearms legislation, reducing its
North Haven workforce accordingly.
For its part, the
NRA asserted that Malloy’s ban on rifles mostly used for sporting purposes
would not put a dent in the murder rate in America’s major cities. Dead bodies in Chicago’s mean streets continue to pile up. Though Chicago is one of the most gun restrictive cities in the nation, gun crimes there are committed by
gang-bangers and other prosecutable criminals who easily find a way around
restrictive laws. The handguns – not long rifles -- they use almost certainly have
not been purchased from authorized gun dealers. Laws governing the open market
do not touch the black market, and only a demagogue of rare metal would accuse
the NRA of wanting to sell guns to those who have criminal backgrounds. More
than a year after the passage of Malloy’s gun restriction bill, Connecticut’s
nearly bankrupt Capital City, Hartford, was tagged the murder capital of New
England. As of this writing it is not clear whether Connecticut criminals who
have used illegally obtained weapons in the commission of their crimes are
eligible for Connecticut’s extremely liberal “get-out-of-jail-early” program
initiated by the state’s prison guru, Mike Lawlor.
Malloy has now
turned his attention to pistols.
Malloy’s exorbitant gun
licensing fees are comparable to poll taxes in the Deep South during the dark
days of Jim Crow. The point of the poll tax was to negate the 14th amendment,
which prevented voting discrimination against poor African Americans who could
not afford poll taxes; the point of Malloy's absurd gun registration fee
increase is to negate the 2nd amendment by all means necessary and to deny the
benefits of the constitution to poor people most in need of self-defense, many
of them African Americans who live in cities where second amendment rights are
effectively proscribed -- high crime cities like Chicago. There has got to be a
suit in here somewhere. Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney's notion that the pistol permit fee was increased
because the state is in debt is a dodge and an imposture. What other state imposed fees were
increased by a like percentage?
And -- while we are on the point -- precisely
who is responsible for state debt? Gun owners can in good conscience plead
innocent. Can Looney or Malloy? The same irresponsible constitution-shirking
numbskulls who made the debt are now writing laws that in effect proscribe
second amendment rights. Would it not be more remunerative to repeal the 14th
amendment and allow poll taxes or quadruple driver license fees? Either way, the poor suffer: Jim Crow wants
them not to vote, and Malloy-Looney want them to be unable effectively to ward
off the predators in their midst.
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