Connecticut has an “assault weapon” problem.

Politicians rammed through a law demanding that citizens register scary-looking firearms and standard capacity magazines, and the citizenry overwhelmingly responded by being “militantly sedentary.”

Gun owners sat on their butts and refused to register either arms or magazines, all but daring the state to do anything about it.

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.

Right before the December 31 deadline, a handful of souls attempted to register their firearms and magazines at the last minute. They now find themselves in limbo, documented but not legal, and the state is now demanding their firearms:

When state officials decided to accept some gun registrations and magazine declarations that arrived after a Jan. 4 deadline, they also had to deal with those applications that didn’t make the cut.

The state now holds signed and notarized letters saying those late applicants own rifles and magazines illegally.

But rather than turn that information over to prosecutors, state officials are giving the gun owners a chance to get rid of the weapons and magazines.

The state is sending letters to 106 rifle owners and 108 residents with high-capacity magazines saying they can destroy the guns and ammunition, sell them to a federally licensed gun dealer, move the items out of state or sell them to somebody out of state, or make arrangements to turn them over to local or state police.

Those who fail to do so could face serious criminal penalties.

Once people realize they can’t keep the guns and magazines, “they’re going to get rid of them,” Michael P. Lawlor, the undersecretary for criminal justice policy and planning to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, says.

The 106 firearm owners and 108 standard-capacity magazine owners have just learned first-hand that if you’re going to lick boots, you must do it fast, and do it well.

They failed to register on time or correctly (sometimes both), and so must give away their lawfully-purchased property, sell it, give it away, or turn it over to the police.

The right to keep and bear these arms? That doesn’t matter anymore, not in Connecticut.

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”  –Samuel Adams