In the Wake of Sandy Hook, Connecticut Passes Some of the Strictest Gun Legislation in the Country

Yesterday, bipartisan lawmakers in Connecticut have created a bill that includes several new gun control laws that, if passed, will make the state one of the strictest on guns in the nation. The deal includes a ban on 100 new types of firearms, a ban on new high-capacity ammunition magazines, a statewide dangerous weapon offender registry and immediate universal background checks for all firearms sales.

In cases where gun owners already own one of the newly banned types of firearms or high-capacity ammunition magazines, they will not be forced to surrender their weapons though they must reregister them under the new, stricter requirements.

House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero Jr. (R) announced, “No gun owner will lose their gun. No gun owner will lose their magazines.”

The proposal for gun law reformation was formed following the December 14, 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT in which 26 people (20 of them children) lost their lives.

“In Connecticut, we’ve broken the mold,” says Senate President Donald E. Williams Jr. (D). “Democrats and Republicans were able to come to an agreement on a strong, comprehensive bill. That is a message that should resound in 49 other states and in Washington, D.C. And the message is: We can get it done here and they should get it done in their respective states and nationally in Congress.”

Not everyone is happy about the new bill. Gun owners who have been protesting at the state capitol, according to executive director of the Connecticut Coalition of Sportsmen Robert Crook, feel that they’ve been making their voices heard “for virtually nothing.”

No, not virtually nothing. They’ve let us know that they’re a bunch of heartless crazies who feel like their right to own a gun is worth more than the the lives of 26 students and teachers so surely, that’s worth something.