The Connecticut General Assembly is currently considering HB 6962, an Act Concerning Firearm Safety, that will expand the state’s requirements for safe gun storage and set penalties for gun owners whose firearms fall into the wrong hands. This is the second of a series of opinions both in support and opposition to the bill. Others will be forthcoming in the days ahead.
The following is video testimony by Scott Wilson, president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, Inc., before the Judiciary Committee on March 11. Wilson’s comments last about four minutes and are followed by 16 minutes of questioning by committee members.
Here is a brief excerpt:
“When I was a youth, I was at home and a friend of a relative brought a gun over that he stole from his father, and he put it in my relative’s hand, and my relative was fiddling around with it, and the next thing I know, I’m bleeding. I’m bleeding everywhere… all over the place.
“And what happened was the bullet hit my shoulder, hit my neck, lodged against my spine, hit the artery in my neck. I was in the hospital. I lost the use of my arm. And I’m still here today to tell you that I believe that people need to be able to have access to their firearms in a way that they deem fit.
“My Second Amendment rights trump whatever self storage laws that are trying to be imposed here, added to whatever already exists in state statutes.”
Links to earlier commentaries on HB 6932: