Press Release
For Immediate Release:
Open up the background check systems
Here is something for the ‘do something’ crowd to actually do that we can agree upon
Hartford, Connecticut, February 5th, 2013:
It seems that everywhere we look as a pro-rights organization, we see and hear people talking about ‘common sense’ and ‘compromise’. Unfortunately, the things that are proposed as ‘common sense’ are often totalitarian edicts that will result in the loss of life and property and the ‘compromise’ consists of anti-rights activists demanding those edicts and then stating that we are unreasonable when we don’t agree with them.
In the interest of ‘common sense’ and compromise, Connecticut Carry proposes that the legislators instead work towards a bill to completely open our Connecticut state background check system and provide instant access to it for free via the internet and possibly via smart phone applications as well. In working towards this goal, Connecticut Carry would be happy to assist, since we have experience in providing a Conviction History Search service to our members through our website.
Legislators should also work to get the Federal background check system opened to the public and available instantly online. Already the AIFIS system that the Connecticut State Police use for national background checks is automated and returns results in less than 2 hours. There is no reason the NICS couldn’t be opened to the public with near-instant results via handheld devices for free.
This would go a long way towards more background checks in our state and in our country as people would surely appreciate a free and easy way to check the criminal status of people trying to buy a firearm privately from them. No gun owner wants to sell to a prohibited person. Why not give them the tools to make sure they do not since we already have Federal criminal penalties that apply if they do sell to a criminal?
This is a real change that our legislators could be working towards instead of insulting the hundreds of thousands of responsible gun owners in Connecticut with ridiculous bill proposals that seek to ban the majority of firearms and firearms accessories in private hands.
Connecticut Carry is dedicated to advancing and protecting the fundamental civil rights of the men and women of Connecticut to keep and bear arms for defense of themselves and the state as guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Constitution of Connecticut.
Contact:
Richard Burgess
President
Connecticut Carry, Inc
Ph: 203-208-9577
Email: rich@ctcarry.com
http://ctcarry.com
Press Release
For Immediate Release:
Legislature makes plans to work against the will of the people
Thousands of gun owners show up at the legislature, testimony falls on deaf ears
Hartford, Connecticut, January 2013:
On January 19th, at least 1500 gun owners braved the bitter cold and gathered on the steps of the state capital demanding an end to the onslaught of bills that seek to make them further victims of a madman. Speakers spoke of rights, of being victims and pledged to never be victims again. The event was marked by a huge amount of passion, but was completely peaceful and uneventful. The capital police made remarks about how they did not need to police the pro-rights people at the event, only the handful of anti-rights activists who continually tried to stir up trouble and were ignored by the participants until they were escorted from the event by the capital police.
On January 28th, gun owners made a record show of force inside the Legislative Office Building, once again braving bitter cold temperatures, snowy roads and taking time off of their work. This time, somewhere over 2000 gun owners piled into the legislative office building creating ridiculously long lines at metal detectors meant to slow and discourage their arrival. They packed at least 5 large hearing rooms including the largest hearing room in the Legislative Office Building which served as the main hearing room.
Thunderous applause followed pro-rights testimony; as sure a sign of the probable 100:1 ratio of pro-rights to anti-rights supporters as the sea of bright yellow “Another Responsible Gun Owner” stickers that Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen handed out. They brought 1,100 stickers and ran out. The stickers became a hot commodity as they were in such spectacular demand. MSNBC and other media outlets tried to smear the pro-rights supporters that attended by accusing them of ‘heckling’ the father of a Newtown victim. MSNBC went so far as to drastically edit the video for that effect. They have been called out on this, and the president of MSNBC, Steve Capus is now resigning amid this scandal, the fifth of such scandals that MSNBC has perpetrated and has been found guilty of.
During the hearing, many pro-rights supporters were shocked and offended that Senator Beth Bye was ignoring testimony to use social media that included mocking and complaining of the pro-rights people testifying and even going so far to ‘participate’ through Twitter in a ‘drinking game’ that sought to mock the people she is supposed to represent.
Perhaps Senator Bye should follow in Mr. Capus’ footsteps and step down from her position since she so clearly does not take her responsibilities seriously?
Throughout all of this, the pro-rights side has been hearing rumors, and it now seems confirmed that the legislature is planning to use ‘Emergency Certification’ to bypass public hearings and to railroad hundreds of thousands of gun owners in Connecticut and make many of them into instant felons while potentially confiscating their personal property.
This is simply unacceptable and immoral.
The legislative committees and anti-rights legislators keep pretending to represent the people while clearly ignoring and mocking the people of Connecticut in not-so-subtle manners. They have overstepped their bounds in the proposal of ridiculous and unconstitutional bills which have further insulted the pro-rights side and made compromise next to impossible.
They claim to be doing the ‘will of the majority’ and listening to ‘the people’, while ignoring the obvious 100:1 pro-rights to anti-rights ratio that exists in this state. They also clearly ignore the fact that mob rule (or small, vocal minority rule) does not give them the power to circumvent due legislative process and people’s constitutional rights.
If we thought mob rule was a reasonable way to govern though, the Courant’s recent online poll showed that only 5.6% of the people polled favored the current legislative proposals out of a total 1941 responses. The anti-rights supporters and legislators continue to be a radical fringe element in our society.
We must demand that the people be heard on every bill proposed and that the legislature give us our due legislative process. This issue is too important and too divisive to ram down people’s throats through heavy handed edicts.
After all, being heard is the true will of the people.
MSNBC Pres. falls on his sword: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/capus-head-of-nbc-news-is-departing/
Connecticut Carry is dedicated to advancing and protecting the fundamental civil rights of the men and women of Connecticut to keep and bear arms for defense of themselves and the state as guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Constitution of Connecticut.
Contact:
Richard Burgess
President
Connecticut Carry, Inc
Ph: 203-208-9577
Email: rich@ctcarry.com
http://ctcarry.com
Press Release
For Immediate Release:
The Gun Violence Taskforce hears from gun owners
1000+ gun owners flood the legislative office building
Hartford, Connecticut, 1/29/2013:
Connecticut Carry was proud to attend and speak at the hearing of the Bipartisan Task Force on Gun Violence Prevention and Children’s Safety. We joined at least 1000 other fellow pro-rights activists and gun owners who braved cold weather, long lines, public speaking and an all day wait to have our voices heard.
The great work of our members utilizing kind and respectful debating and sharing intelligent and articulate thoughts and ideas is sure to leave an impression on everyone in attendance. We can only hope that the legislators in attendance will respect and honor the vast amount of public opinion they received today.
Good spirits and patience ruled the day despite the treatment of our kind as second class citizens. Lines of good people wrapped around the building waiting to be screened by the metal detectors installed because of some ridiculous and misplaced apparent fear of peaceful gun owners.
The hypocrisy of the metal detectors and armed guards was not lost on most in attendance who noted that the same provisions are not available for schools across the state despite both the LOB and schools having the same designations as ‘Gun Free Zones’.
Would it be acceptable to treat any other generalized group of people this way?
If our legislators are important enough to protect with their own armed police force and metal detectors, why have so many legislators mocked the idea of doing the same in our schools? Why have they not embraced the National Rifle Association’s offer to fund and arrange training for such changes?
Senator Ed Meyer reported to a crowd in a church in Guilford at an anti-rights rally and again in Branford at a similar anti-rights rally that he had looked into the cost of such security, but had concluded that it was cheaper to ban guns instead. Would Senator Meyer or the other legislators agree with reassigning the Capitol Police to guard those schools?
Why not?
More information on this issue can be found on http://ctcarry.com.
Written Testimony: http://ctcarry.com/Document/Details/edb0778f-bb83-45f0-a1a0-3d7f67259ccb
Verbal Testimony: http://ctcarry.com/Document/Details/6fe6192f-7e2b-4b30-af13-a4d185df072b
Connecticut Carry is dedicated to advancing and protecting the fundamental civil rights of the men and women of Connecticut to keep and bear arms for defense of themselves and the state as guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Constitution of Connecticut.
Contact:
Richard Burgess
President
Connecticut Carry, Inc
Ph: 203-208-9577
Email: rich@ctcarry.com
http://ctcarry.com
Press Release
For Immediate Release:
Guns Across America Rally in Hartford
Over a thousand gun rights supporters brave the cold to gather at the Capitol
Hartford, Connecticut, 01/19/2013:
Connecticut Carry attended the Guns Across America rally in Hartford on 1/19/2012 along with at least a thousand other pro-gun Connecticut residents. It was encouraging to see people come out and show their support for gun rights as well as their opposition to the new proposed gun control bills. The rally was organized by individuals through a Facebook page and other social media formats. With this example of what may be accomplished through a simple Facebook page and grassroots activism, there is a lot of hope for the efforts of Connecticut’s state level organizations throughout this legislative session.
The media was also in attendance. Although the legislators were away enjoying their weekends, one of the Senators stopped by. Senator Bye stood in the back of the crowd looking uninterested and rolling her eyes at some of the speakers and the cheering crowds when she wasn’t staring down into her phone. Our hope is that at least a little of the spirit and some of the message sank in with Senator Bye. Senator Bye is the proponent of two bills “To require firearm owners to maintain liability insurance and establish a sales tax on the sale of ammunition at a rate of fifty per cent” (HB-5268 & SB-140 ). Such bigotry is shocking, but seems to be the norm with our current legislators.
Connecticut Carry urges our members and Connecticut residents to keep the momentum rolling. Don’t stop now by assuming that a rally was enough to defeat the proposed bills. It is still as important as ever to write to your legislators in opposition to these laws. It is extremely important to attend the public hearings at the Legislative Office Building and testify, whether you do so orally in person or by submitting written testimony.
More information on this issue can be found on http://ctcarry.com.
Connecticut Carry is dedicated to advancing and protecting the fundamental civil rights of the men and women of Connecticut to keep and bear arms for defense of themselves and the state as guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Constitution of Connecticut.
Contact:
Richard Burgess
President
Connecticut Carry, Inc
Ph: 203-208-9577
Email: rich@ctcarry.com
http://ctcarry.com
Press Release
For Immediate Release:
Weston Board of Selectmen Meeting Report
Selectmen made to back down from proposed gun ban ordinance
Connecticut, January 17th, 2013:
Connecticut Carry was on site in Weston at the Board of Selectmen meeting with volunteers in a standing-room-only middle school cafeteria with approximately 200 people. Connecticut Carry spent most of the meeting talking to residents and local police about their concerns and questions related to the proposed ban. The Weston Police Department once again showed remarkable resolve and grace in the face of an ordinance that would be downright ridiculous for them to try and enforce.
Literature disappeared as quickly as it could be distributed and Weston residents once again came fully armed with their own knowledge and research about the facts surrounding their town’s proposed gun ban. It is difficult to tell if the reams of information we distributed at the police commissioner’s meeting helped, but it certainly felt like it.
Town residents made it clear that the select people had overstepped their bounds and had brought needless negative national attention and potential legal liability to their small town. Residents uniformly rejected the proposed tyranny of the Board of Selectmen and instead offered solid suggestions to put armed security in the schools and to look into changes to mental health care instead.
A small group of extreme anti-rights activists from the CSGV-spawned ‘March for Change’ would occasionally speak up with their typical inflammatory talking points about removing civil rights from the town of Weston so that they could send their children to a stranger’s house unsupervised with no parental responsibility. These arguments were met with limited and sporadic applause from even their own activists.
Meanwhile, the residents of Weston that stood their ground and defended their rights were met with large amounts of applause and even shouts of encouragement. There was a real feeling of community amongst the Weston residents present and everyone was courteous and polite.
During the meeting it became clear that the Board of Selectmen had retreated from their ridiculous gun ban ordinance and gone back to discussing clarifications to their 1990 unlawful discharge ordinance. The Board of Selectmen cited a huge outpouring of resistance to their plans from across the state and from across the country as reasons why they had reconsidered their stances.
Connecticut Carry will continue to monitor the ongoing discussions, work closely with residents and the police department and educate and inform those involved as to what is legally acceptable and to advocate on behalf of the residents of Weston.
We are excited to see that the residents of Weston have backed their Board of Selectmen down. They all deserve a pat on the back for having such resolve. This isn’t completely over yet, but they have sure come a long way!
More information on this issue can be found on http://ctcarry.com/WestonBan.
Information handouts for this event:
Connecticut Carry is dedicated to advancing and protecting the fundamental civil rights of the men and women of Connecticut to keep and bear arms for defense of themselves and the state as guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Constitution of Connecticut.
Contact:
Richard Burgess
President
Connecticut Carry, Inc
Ph: 203-208-9577
Email: rich@ctcarry.com
http://ctcarry.com