WASHINGTON — With Donald Trump in the White House and a GOP lock on Congress, the 26 bike riders who roll hundreds of miles every year from Newtown to the U.S. Capitol to honor those slain at Sandy Hook Elementary School decided to change course. Instead of riding to Congress, they were riding away from it Thursday and toward where they believe their message has more resonance.
Gun Reform
Posted inPolitics
Murphy tweets photos of gun violence victims as Trump speaks to NRA
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s appearance at the National Rifle Association’s national convention provoked Sen. Chris Murphy to launch a tweetstorm Friday urging people to turn off the president’s speech and reflect on the victims of gun violence instead.
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
Gorsuch tells Blumenthal he’s offended by Trump’s attacks on judges
WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch on Tuesday confirmed he found President Donald Trump’s criticism of federal judges who ruled to block his travel ban “disheartening and demoralizing” – statements Trump said had been “misrepresented” by Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
Posted inPolitics
Senate abolishes Obama gun rule prompted by Sandy Hook
Updated at 12:20 p.m. Wednesday
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate approved legislation Wednesday that will roll back an Obama administration rule requiring the Social Security Administration to submit information about mentally impaired recipients so they can be added to a list of people barred from purchasing a gun.
Posted inJustice, Money, Politics
Pistol permit fee hikes prompt NRA, others to rebuke Malloy
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposal to bolster state pistol permitting fees drew a sharp response from the National Rifle Association, a Connecticut-based advocacy group and top Republican officials.
Posted inEducation, Politics
With Pence casting historic vote, DeVos is confirmed by Senate
Updated at 4:45 p.m.
WASHINGTON — With the help of Vice President Mike Pence, the Senate on Tuesday confirmed charter school advocate Betsy DeVos to head the U.S. Department of Education. As a lightning rod candidate, DeVos’s confirmation provoked mixed reactions from school groups in Connecticut. .
Posted inEducation, Politics
Murphy presses DeVos on guns in schools
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chris Murphy asked Betsy DeVos, President- elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the U.S. Department of Education, if she believed guns belonged in or around schools. “I believe that’s best left to the locales and states,” she answered.
Posted inJustice, Politics
Blumenthal presses Sessions on his links to controversial groups
WASHINGTON – Sen. Richard Blumenthal provoked one of the liveliest exchanges in the day-long confirmation hearing of Sen. Jeff Sessions, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general, by pressing him on his links to controversial groups who have given him awards.
Posted inPolitics
Blumenthal vows to grill Sessions on gun stance
WASHINGTON — Sen. Jeff Sessions will face scrutiny on his civil rights, immigration and reproductive health issues during his confirmation hearing on his nomination to be the next U.S. attorney general, but Sen. Richard Blumenthal also plans to ask the Alabama lawmaker about this record on gun issues.
Posted inPolitics
Reacting to Larson ‘sit-in,’ House imposes fines for protests
WASHINGTON — Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday beat back Democratic attempts to quash new rules for the chamber that include punishment for lawmakers who break “decorum” by using cell phones to record protests on the chamber floor.
Posted inPolitics
Larson: Dems will defy fines, other sanctions, aimed at stopping protests
WASHINGTON — Rep. John Larson, an architect of a sit-in rebellion of House Democrats last summer, said he and his colleagues will not be deterred by new House rules that will levy fines on such future behavior. He calls the Republicans’ proposed new punishments “Putin-esque.”
Posted inCT Viewpoints
A visit from St. LaPierre
‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the bunker,
alarm codes were set; we were ready to hunker.
The children were nestled all snug in their cots
and protected by spring guns. (Each held 17 shots.)
Our holsters were hung by the bedstead with care,
with hopes that St. LaPierre soon would be there…. (cont.)
Posted inPolitics
Newtown activists come to an election-changed Washington
WASHINGTON — On their first pilgrimage here since the election, relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and other incidents of gun violence and their allies asked President-elect Donald Trump to abandon his hard-line stance against gun control. But chances of that are slim.
Posted inPolitics
Capitol Hill vigil for Sandy Hook victims unites activists
The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting has been a catalyst for mobilizing family members of gun violence victims, and its anniversary has become the day to gather to support each other.