As the collective shock and horror of continued mass shooting of innocents ripple across the country, Connecticut is once again reminded of its own horrific event on December 14, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The agony of loved ones left to suffer these devastating losses is profound and cuts so deep that the pain can never go away.
A stunned public learned that 26 young children and adults were killed by a mentally ill person with access to legally purchased weapons and unrestricted access to the school. Legislators from both sides of the aisle immediately took strong measures to address this horrific tragedy.
Then-Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, who represented Newtown and its people, along with top leadership led a bipartisan effort to make groundbreaking changes to Connecticut gun laws. They formed a committee with equal numbers of Republican and Democratic members. Co-chairs of the gun, school security and mental health reform bill-writing subcommittees, of which I was one, held extensive public hearings.
The end result was one of the “toughest” gun laws in the country, including expansion of Connecticut’s assault weapons ban, regulating long guns, background checks for ALL gun sales, magazine capacity limits, ammunition restrictions, safe gun storage, school security plans, building safety upgrades and increasing mental health services.
In subsequent years, other bills such as a gun-restraining order and a bump stock ban were also passed in a bi-partisan manner.
Congress should take a long hard look at these measures.
Those charged with the responsibility of making the changes needed to help reduce the violence in our society have to stop the political grand-standing, partisan bickering and finger pointing. They should deal with gun regulation head-on, no matter the opposition, as we did in 2013 after Sandy Hook.
Toni Boucher is a Connecticut businesswoman, former state senator and state representative.
Somehow liberals ignore the 40 people shot over the weekend in Chicago where strict gun laws and weak Democrat support of law enforcement cause pain and suffering.
Ms. Boucher is right. Congress should take a long hard look at CT’s gun laws…and run away from the laws’ lunacy, back to The Founding Fathers’ intent behind the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 14th (later) and the presumption of innocence, which used to be the backbone of our system.
These politicians like Toni are anti-2nd amendment. How? They don’t trust American citizens with the type of firearm best suited to the intent of the 2nd. The 2nd amendment. Which is not about hunting or “sporting purposes”.
Also these people are either willfully blind or horribly naive to think that their type of draconian measures will ever work. The 3D printer made sure of that the day it was invented. The technology of the 3D printer will only improve. The designs of the guns will only improve. The files to create the guns and the magazines will never not be out there. They can be purged off of the internet on one day and put back the next. They are safe on thumb drives everywhere all over the world.
One example. Just one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W-eFOOy1aM
It appears Toni STILL doesn’t understand that her and McKinney’s antigun stance is the reason they are no longer in office. Real Republicans left their circles unfilled rather than vote for someone who doesn’t support the party platform and principles. Why vote for a democrat just because they stuck a (R) after their name?