HARTFORD, Conn. – A Connecticut government commission created after the Sandy Hook school massacre will be proposing a “gun ban.”
The Morning Journal reports:
An advisory panel charged with looking at public safety in the wake of the deadly Newtown school shooting agreed Friday to include in its final report a recommendation to ban the sale and possession of any gun that can fire more than 10 rounds without reloading.
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“Whether or not this law would stand the test of constitutionality is not for this commission to decide,” says former Hartford Police Chief Bernard Sullivan, a member of the panel.
“The commission has expressed very strongly that this is a statement that is needed regarding the lethality of weapons.”
The group wants to emphasize that there “needs to be more regulation of guns that can inflict mass casualties, even if it causes some inconvenience to recreational shooters.”
Members of the commission want to make it clear they hope to not just affect Connecticut gun control policy.
“We’re not writing proposed legislation, we’re writing end results, saying this is where we think you guys need to go,” says Hamden Mayor Scott Jackson, the commission’s chairman, according to the paper.
“We’re hoping that some of our recommendations will go far beyond the borders of the state of Connecticut.”
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The commission has been meeting for more than two years, according to 22 News.
By going after the amount of ammunition a gun can hold, commission members believe they can win.
“You don’t have to classify it as an ‘assault weapon’ or and handgun or another category,” Jackson tells the news station.
“The commission felt that this was a more coherent way to set public policy.”
And the commission believes it’s the guns – not the people – that are to blame.
“The single biggest common denominator between them is not mental health, it’s not the structure of the school, and school safety issues, it’s access to, possession of, and use of these weapons of war,” says Dr. Harold Schwartz, Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Hartford Hospital’s Institute of Living.
The commission is reportedly backing away from its idea to ban gun manufacturing in Connecticut.
After the shooting, the state banned the AR-15 rifle. The commission’s recommendation will go beyond that.
“Many of the ways that legislation around firearms has been presented is around a model, a type, this clears all that away,” Jackson tells WWLP.
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