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CT Against Gun Violence
and Other Gun Violence Prevention Groups Urge President
Obama to Ban Armor-Piercing Handgun Used in Fort Hood
Shooting
In a letter sent to the White House
CT Against Violence joined with 26 other national, regional,
and state gun violence prevention groups to urge President
Obama to use his executive powers to ban the importation
of the FN Herstal Five-seveN semiautomatic pistol. The
Five-seveN was developed for military and law enforcement
use with high-velocity, armor-piercing ammunition, but
is now widely available on the civilian market. A Five-seveN
was used in the Fort Hood mass shooting earlier this month,
which left 13 dead and 34 wounded. The weapon is also
preferred by Mexican drug cartels.
The letter states that under federal
law, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
has authority to prohibit the importation of any firearm
or ammunition unless it is "generally recognized as particularly
suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes."
In the past, this power has been exercised to prohibit
the importation of so-called "Saturday Night Special"
handguns, "Street Sweeper" shotguns, and many foreign-made
assault weapons.
While the letter notes that the Fort
Hood shooting raises the need for other changes in federal
firearms law, including the need to address gaps in the
federal background check system that allow suspected terrorists
to legally buy guns and the ready availability of high-capacity
magazines, those would require new federal legislation.
The President can stop the importation of the Five-seveN,
however, without any action by Congress.
Click
here to read letter to President Obama.
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Holocaust Museum Shooting:James
W. Van Brunn, who gunned down security officer Stephen
Tyrone Johns at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington,
DC, is a hard right extremist and a loner who is not alone.
Like many other extremists, Van Brunn
believed that Western civilization was going to be replaced
with a "One World Illuminati Government" that would "confiscate
private weapons" in order to prevent any citizen uprising.
Von Brunn is not alone in his anti-government
views. He joins a list of insurrectionists, including:
Richard Poplawski, who killed three police officers in
Pittsburgh in April; Joshua Cartwright, who killed two
police officers in the Florida panhandle in April; and
Jim Adkisson, who killed two parishioners at the Tennessee
Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in July 2008. All
shared Von Brunn's paranoia. A friend of Poplawski told
the Associated Press that Poplawski feared "the Obama
gun ban that's on the way." According to the police report,
Cartwright's wife said her husband "believed that the
US Government was conspiring against him. She said he
had been severely disturbed that Barack Obama had been
elected President." Adkisson told police that "he could
not get to the leaders of the liberal movement that he
would then target those that had voted them in to office."
Authorities say it is difficult to
draw the line to differentiate between those who just
spew out crazy ideas from those who are going to act on
them. The First Amendment protects their right of free
speech and the Second, according to last year's Supreme
Court ruling in Heller vs District of Columbia, their
right to carry a gun.
But the Heller decision doesn't prevent
us from passing common sense gun safety legislation to
protect the innocent. The NRA and the gun lobby works
to prevent that. Of all the possible gun safety legislation
that Congress could address - Closing the Gun Show Loophole,
renewing and improving the Assault Weapon Ban - the only
gun legislation passed by Congress this year was the NRA-inspired
Coburn Amendment , illogically attached to the Credit
Card regulation bill, allowing loaded guns to be carried
in our National Parks.
How does that help? More guns in more
places means more gun deaths.
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The Brady Campaign released
its annual state scorecards, which rates each state on
the strength of its gun laws. Connecticut tied with Massachusetts
for having the third best score among the states:
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Microstamping introduced
in Connecticut - Senate Bill 353
On February 9, The Judiciary raised SB
353, AN ACT CONCERNING THE MICROSTAMPING OF SEMIAUTOMATIC
PISTOLS. The bill was proposed by Senator Martin Looney,
Senate Majority Leader.
The bill would prohibit
the sale in Connecticut of any semiautomatic pistol not
equipped with the microstamping technology after January
1, 2011.
Microstamping uses
lasers to make precise, microscopic engravings on the
firing pin or inside the firing chamber of a gun which
are transferred to the casings when the gun is fired.
Police at a crime scene can immediately read the microscopic
serial numbers on the shell casings and link the evidence
to the specific gun that fired the round. (Read
facts about microstamping).
A public hearing
will be held soon on the bill by the Judiciary Committee.
A date for the hearing has not yet been set.
Law enforcement sees
microstamping as an important investigative tool and has
been endorsed by the International Association of Chiefs
of Police (IACP). (See
IACP resolution on Microstamping, on page #2
of PDF).
A microstamping bill
has already passed in California and starting January
1, 2010 all new semiautomatic handgun models sold in California
must be equipped with the microstamping technology.
CAGV also supports SB
358, An Act Concerning Prohibiting The Transfer Of Assault
Weapons Or Machine Guns To Minors. This bill, also
proposed by Senator Looney, stems from the incident at
a gun show in Massachusetts where an eight-year-old boy,
a resident of Ashland, CT, was killed after being allowed
to fire a machine gun at the show under the supervision
of adults. The recoil from the gun caused the boy to shoot
himself in the head.
The bill would prohibit the transfer of
an assault weapon or machine gun to a person less than
eighteen years of age, including the temporary transfer
for use in target shooting or on a firing or shooting
range or for any other purpose.
One would think that it's commonsense not
to give children machineguns but as this shows, even when
supervised by adults, these weapons can and do kill children.
State Representative Kim Fawcett (D-133,
Fairfield/Westport) sees first hand how clearly microstamping
allows forensic technicians to read the identifying characters
on spent shell casings. Law enforcement will no longer
need to be in possession of the firearm to identify the
gun that fired the round.
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NRA the Biggest Loser
There has been this myth in political circles if a
lawmaker voted against legislation the NRA supported,
the NRA would defeat them in the next election. We continue
to prove in CT the opposite is true. This year we built
on our big wins in the last election cycle and again saw
pro-NRA legislators lose their seats. Read
more.
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The Gun Lobby's
Loss
The gun lobby has long intimidated politicians with its
war chest and its trumpeted ability to deliver single-issue
voters, especially in tight races. After this year's election,
those politicians should be far less afraid and far more
willing to vote for sensible gun-control laws. Read
more.
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6/24/08 - Norwich man used shotgun in
weekend robbery, police say Norwich- A Norwich man
who police said wielded a shotgun during a robbery at
his own apartment Saturday faces multiple felony charges.
Read more.
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6/9/08 - Hartford Police Seize Firearm,
Arrest Two
Hartford - Police arrested two occupants in a white van
on Park Street in Hartford early this morning and seized
an assault rifle after receiving reports of gunshots in
the area, police said. Read
more.
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6/5/08 - Man Charged In Windsor Locks
Home Invasion
Windsor Locks- Police on Wednesday charged a Suffield
man in connection with an early morning burglary and shooting
on Maple Avenue. Read
more.
