For almost two weeks now, gun sales in Connecticut have been at an almost complete standstill, thanks to what was billed as an “upgrade” to the state’s background check and fingerprinting system. Instead, after the Connecticut State Police implemented the supposed improvements, the system appears to have crashed, and dozens of gun shops and thousands of residents have been unable to proceed with legal sales as a result.

“The software upgrade has caused severe delays in most cases and in some instances outright outages for firearm retailers to be able to run the background checks that they need to,” Mark Oliva of the National Shooting Sports Foundation said.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation said it’s frustrating for retailers.

“That in essence is denying the citizens of Connecticut from being able to exercise their Second Amendment right,” Oliva said.

On Wednesday, the Connecticut Citizens Defense League asked a federal judge to intervene, and Holly Sullivan, the group’s president, joined Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co to discuss the delays and the possibility of court relief. Thanks to the group’s legal efforts last year, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer ruled than an executive order by Gov. Ned Lamont closing fingerprinting services amounted to a deprivation of Second Amendment rights, since the state requires every legal gun owner to have fingerprints on file before they can purchase a firearm or ammunition. Lamont’s executive order in essence prevented any resident from becoming a new gun owner, and Judge Meyer acknowledged that without the ability to acquire a firearm, it’s impossible to keep and bear one.

Sullivan says Connecticut residents are now in the same position that they were in when Lamont’s executive order was in effect; unable to exercise their Second Amendment rights thanks to the actions of the state government. The state can’t say when the background check system will be back to normal, but as the delays stretch on the infringement on the right to keep and bear arms becomes more egregious. The CCDL requested an emergency status meeting with the judge on Wednesday, and Sullivan says that a conference has been scheduled for Friday afternoon. The organization is asking for an immediate resumption of gun sales, even if the state has to use the NICS system instead of its own failed setup. We’ll see if Judge Meyer has anything to say after that meeting takes place, or if he’ll give the state the weekend to try to fix their foul-up.

In the meantime, if you want to help the CCDL in their legal efforts, you can donate to the organization here.

Be sure to check out the entire discussion with Holly Sullivan in the video window above, and stick around afterwards for a bonus interview with my buddy Kurt Schlichter, whose latest Kelly Turnbull novel “The Split” is out today. If you like fast-paced action, snarky political humor, and dystopian fiction, I think you’ll thoroughly enjoy the sixth book in the Turnbull franchise, and I feel confident that you’ll get a kick out of my conversation with Kurt as well.