Not So Fast, Connecticut

Connecticut has been in the news lately. In the aftermath of the Newton school shooting the state passed some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country. One of those provisions retroactively classified certain weapons as so-called 'assault weapons' and required their registration.  Another required registration of standard-capacity magazines (which the state considers large or high capacity).

Compliance with the law has been less than overwhelming.

Of the estimated 375,000-400,000 firearms deemed “assault weapons” by the state, more than 325,000 remain undocumented. Only about 50,000 were registered for future confiscation.

The requirement to register standard capacity magazines was laughed at even louder by the citizenry; just 38,000 (less than 2 percent) of an estimated 2 million standard capacity magazines holding greater than ten rounds of ammunition were registered with the state.

Those law-abiding citizens who did register soon regretted doing so. They are now self-confessed owners of illegal weapons. As such, the state is demanding that they surrender those weapons and magazines. In fact, the state has sent official letters to the 'criminals' demanding compliance. Although officials won't admit it, the next logical step for the state is to dispatch law enforcement officials to confiscate those weapons and magazines.

Click to embiggen.

That's a recipe for disaster and bloodshed. Someone is going to get shot, either by a jumpy cop high on adrenalin and nerves, or by a frightened and defiant gun owner.

...sooner or later...there will be a raid on a gun-owners house, with overwhelming Para-military Police Force and either through intent or accident, shots will be exchanged, blood will be shed and another log will be thrown on a long smoldering fire of discontent with Government at all levels.

But it now appears that there might be an unforeseen complication (note that at the time I posted this the following story is unconfirmed).

Connecticut has been making news due to their hastily passed gun registration laws. According to some sources as few as 15% of gun owners have actually registered their firearms. News Blogs have been warning state officials are talking about mass confiscations of the unregistered firearms.

Plans for these confiscations hit a snag when a legislative intern dared to ask a question. “Who will be going door to door to take all the guns away?” asked the 21-year-old college senior.

Reportedly multiple people in the room in the most sarcastic voices they could muster said “the police”.

The unnamed intern then pointed at the list and said, “my dad’s name is on the list, and he is the police chief. I see three other names on this list of family members, all cops.”

With in hours a print off of all sworn Law Enforcement officers in the state was obtained. Comparisons of the list of gun owners who failed to comply with registration requirements and sworn LEOs showed a startling figure. Just over 68% of Connecticut cops had failed to register firearms according to the new law.

An anonymous source in the Governors office said lawmakers were dumbfounded. “Someone suggest firing all the cops who failed to register. But the reality of hiring and training that many new police officers is not practical"...

So now Connecticut is in little quagmire. The powers that be are making all kinds of threats, but there is no one to follow through on the threats

No police officers or police administrators were willing to go on record for this story. Emails to members of the Connecticut legislator and Governors office were not returned by the time of publication.

Let me say again that the story is unconfirmed. I was only able to find this one single version. No other media outlet has carried it, so I'm somewhat skeptical about its accuracy.

But wouldn't it be great if it turned out to be true...