Connecticut resumed the unending conversation about how firearms can or should be regulated in a nation where the the Supreme Court has ruled gun ownership is a right, though not an absolute one.
Connecticut Citizens Defense League
Posted inPolitics
Murphy helps raise campaign cash to defeat NRA-backed Republicans
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chris Murphy will join other gun control advocates and coalition of progressive groups in a one-day fundraising effort for eight Democrats hoping to defeat Republican incumbents with “A” ratings from the National Rifle Association in November’s mid-term elections. It’s an effort show the gun control lobby has political clout, and help flip the U.S. House — and maybe also the Senate — to Democratic control.
Posted inPolitics
Hatfield opposes 3D-printed guns, loses endorsement of gun group
With the gun lobby, it seems to be all or nothing. Susan Hatfield, the endorsed Republican candidate for attorney general, said Friday that her opposition to untraceable 3D-printed firearms — a position the President Trump has hinted he might adopt — has cost her the support of the state’s largest gun owners’ group, the Connecticut Citizens Defense League.
Posted inJustice
A conversation with Scott Wilson, a voice for gun owners
Scott Wilson helped what is now the state’s largest gun group, the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, not long after Barack Obama became president in January 2009. A soft-spoken logistics specialist at a trucking company, he has emerged as a leading voice of gun owners in Connecticut, home of some of the toughest gun controls in the U.S.
Posted inJustice, Politics
U.S. Supreme Court declines to consider Sandy Hook gun ban
The U.S. Supreme Court declined without comment Monday to consider a challenge by Connecticut gun owners to gun controls the state passed in response to the shooting deaths of 26 children and staff at Sandy Hook elementary school by a gunman armed with an AR-15, 30-round magazines and high-powered ammo.
Posted inJustice, Politics
Obama: ‘We will not give in to fear or turn against each other’
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy ordered flags lowered to half-staff Sunday as Connecticut joined President Obama and the nation in mourning the murders of 50 people in an Orlando, Fla., nightclub, an act of terror and the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Some Democrats quickly called for Congress to strengthen measures aimed at preventing gun violence.
Posted inJustice, Politics
Court upholds post-Newtown gun laws in Conn., N.Y.
A federal appeals court Monday upheld the central provisions of the sweeping gun control laws passed by the New York and Connecticut legislatures in response to the mass murders of 26 children and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Shot by relative, he still opposes firearm safety law’s expansion
In this second commentary in a series of opinions both in support and opposition to HB 6962, a firearm storage safety bill, the president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League tells legislators how he was accidentally shot as a youth by a relative who was playing with a stolen gun. “The bullet hit my shoulder, hit my neck, lodged against my spine, hit the artery in my neck. … 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.
Posted inPolitics
NRA fails to block judicial nomination of ‘anti-gunner’
The Connecticut legislature Friday ignored an NRA campaign to block the judicial nomination of a former legislator who co-sponsored the post-Newtown gun controls, voting overwhelmingly to confirm Auden C. Grogins of Bridgeport as a judge of the Superior Court.
Posted inPolitics
Super PACs make Newtown an issue in the CT governor’s race
In the final days of Connecticut’s deadlocked race for governor, two super PACs are making $2.4 million in independent expenditures on advertising praising Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s push for a sweeping gun control law after the Newtown school massacre and criticizing Tom Foley’s support for repeal.
Posted inPolitics
Guns a muted issue in Connecticut congressional races
While Connecticut has helped make guns a national issue, there’s been only a little talk of them in the state’s congressional elections so far. They’ve created some stir in the race for governor, however.
Posted inPolitics
CCDL endorses Tom Foley, most of GOP ticket
The Connecticut Citizens Defense League, a gun owners’ group whose membership blossomed in opposition to the post-Newtown gun controls, today endorsed Republican Tom Foley for governor, snubbing one of its activists, petitioning candidate Joe Visconti.
Posted inPolitics
Martha Dean opens campaign with appeal to gun owners
Martha Dean told Connecticut’s largest gun group that her candidacy for governor was an opportunity for besieged gun owners to strike at a Democratic governor and General Assembly hostile to their rights — and to GOP candidates who only pay lip service to their interests. Dean says she will wage a Republican primary only if endorsed by the nominating convention in May.
Posted inPolitics
Foley courts gun owners without promising Sandy Hook repeal
Middletown — Republican gubernatorial contender Tom Foley told the state’s largest gun group Tuesday night that he would block further gun-control legislation if elected, but he has no plans to seek repeal of the sweeping changes to the state’s gun laws approved last year in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.