Toni Harp, incoming New Haven mayor, former Connecticut Senator, was reported to request a full-time security detail consisting of two well-armed New Haven police officers that will be driving the new mayor around. The hypocrisy in Senator Harp’s request for the security detail was not lost on Connecticut Carry President Richard Burgess:

“Toni Harp voted to take away, restrict and ban many effective self-defense tools from good, hard-working Connecticut citizens. That she now wishes to be surrounded at all times by two officers that are exempt from those laws says a lot about how she relates to her constituency and how she values herself compared to our families.”

Citizens of Connecticut have been restricted from buying effective self-defense tools including modern sporting rifles and regular capacity magazines ever since SB 1160 passed, a bill that Toni Harp was not shy about supporting. These tools are the same tools that the security detail around her will carry on a regular basis to defend her from the rampant crime that this law will continue to fuel in New Haven. A luxury that even those in Connecticut who can afford private security are not even allowed due to the new laws.

While Toni Harp is protected by two well-armed officers that could be protecting citizens, the citizens in Connecticut who have a pistol permit (1 out of 10 eligible citizens) will have to defend themselves and their families with limited capacity magazines and inferior tools. Indeed, studies show that tools like this are used in defensive roles around 2.5 million times a year nationally. Such tools are desired to defend against the frequent, and emboldened, mob attacks that occur in New Haven that have worsened since the ban.

Why does Toni Harp feel it necessary to have these tools around her for protection when she has spent her time denying those tools to the rest of the citizens of Connecticut? Are our families and loved ones’ lives worth less than Toni Harp’s?

President Burgess concluded:

“Clearly Toni Harp shares our belief that these tools are effective defensive tools. The difference is that she apparently believes that she is part of an elite class of people who are entitled to be defended by these tools while the rest of us are supposed to follow the law she voted for.”