Sandy Hook Advisory Commission Calls For Confiscation Of Modern Firearms

Connecticut progressive Dannel Malloy was more than happy to exploit the murders at Sandy Hook to assault the Second Amendment in the erroneously-named "Constitution State."

Reason’s Jacob Sullum has taken a hard look at the gun control proposal of the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, and finds their conclusions to be blatantly unconstitutional.

Advertisement

Last Friday, the Associated Press reports, the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, appointed by Gov. Dannel Malloy, decided to recommend a ban on “the sale and possession of any gun that can fire more than 10 rounds without reloading.” You may recall that Connecticut’s legislature already responded to the Sandy Hook massacre by passing a raft of new gun restrictions, including a 10-round limit on magazines and an expanded definition of “assault weapons,” back in April 2013. The new definition of prohibited guns covers any rifle that accepts a detachable magazine and has any of five “military-style” features. The advisory commission, which is expected to issue its final report next month, apparently wants to expand the category of banned weapons to include any rifle or handgun that accepts a detachable magazine, period. And unlike the legislature, which allowed continued possession of prohibited guns and magazines as long as they were registered, the commission wants to confiscate all weapons capable of firing more than 10 rounds without reloading.

Let’s be very, very blunt.

The commission is calling for a course that not only eviscerates the Second Amendment to the Constitution, but would also destroy the Fourth Amendment as the state government would attempt to confiscate hundreds of thousands to millions of firearms from law-abiding citizens.

Advertisement

A man named General Gage attempted a similarly audacious plan on April 19, 1775 in nearby Massachusetts.

It didn’t turn out well for him.

While Governor Malloy would no doubt like to implement the commission’s recommendations, he must be acutely aware of the fact that otherwise law-abiding citizens would view an attempt to force these draconian restrictions as an act of war… and no, I’m not overstating the case in the slightest. While grossly and intentionally under-reported in the mainstream media, the state only averted a potential shooting war last March by choosing to not enforce the state’s laws mandating the registration of many semi-automatic firearms and standard capacity magazines.

An estimated 80,00-100,000 Constitution State gun owners flatly refused to comply with a law that turned them into felons overnight for merely owning personal property that it is there constitutional right to own. The State Police issued harsh rhetoric asserting that they would attempt to come after these gun owners… until saner heads in the state government crunched the numbers and came to the realization that they would fare poorly in the conflict that would arise from their actions, especially when they were alerted to the fact that American citizens from around the nation would flood the state with ill intent if the government did indeed attempt to wage war against the citizenry.

Advertisement

The Sandy Hook Advisory Commission seems to be little more than an attempt to protect the mental health care community in Connecticut from their failure to correctly diagnose and treat the mass killer* that took the life of his own mother before murdering 26 others and wounding two more. It’s a shameful display of cowardice and blame-shifting from so-called professionals, and the citizens of the state of Connecticut deserve better.

It’s also an assault on the Constitution that will lead to violence if implemented.

Let’s hope that Connecticut’s rabidly anti-gun governor is intelligent enough to refuse to listen to the commission.

 

* Bearing Arms does not publish the names of mass or spree killers.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Advertisement
Advertisement