Not all of us in Newtown want to take your guns away (Vanity)

The governor of Connecticut is a tool. He ran one of our biggest cities (Stamford) into the ground, and now has managed to run this liberal paradise of a state into the ground as well.

Aside from the personal attacks on the GOP candidate that is running against him that come from the so-called media here in Connecticut, all we keep hearing about this election season is "common sense solutions to gun violence."

I live in Sandy Hook. On December 14, 2013 a young man who was pretty much insane murdered 26 people in an elementary school a few miles from my house. One of the dead children was my neighbor. I lived among all of the stuff you saw on TV -- the anguish, the funerals, the idiots from the media crawling all over the place like maggots. And stuff you didn't read about or see on TV, like the traffic jams, the complete lack of privacy, the consolation of our friends and neighbors, the sharing of the grief and relief and guilt of the parents and the children who survived (my friends and neighbors).

I watched my friends who are first responders struggle in the aftermath of staring into the face of evil, having nightmares of shattered little bodies and of trying to identify fragments of teeth and hair from those bodies. All in a place the press never saw and the people never heard about thankfully.

I walked my dog past the command post at Fairfield Hills every day, a space littered with vehicles from a multitude of law enforcement agencies, people gathering outside the small building staring stone faced at me, the grim uniformed officer guarding the entrance nodding at me each day.

I own a few businesses in town that were negatively affected by the tragedy as all of us numbly stumbled through Christmas.

The helicopters of Marine Helicopter Squadron One flew noisily over my house in formation, delivering the disgrace we have as a president to speak at the local high school with the disgrace we have as a governor.

The point is that I felt the pain. Personally. Not that I would ever compare my pain with that of someone who lost someone at the shooting (that's what we call it now), but I felt the pain we all felt and it changed all of us.

There are some vocal gun control people among the relatives of the victims. I counted eight different families speaking out for gun laws like the one we got in Connecticut, with four families being especially vocal. That's about a third of the families involved. Yet the press always refers to them as "The Sandy Hook Families" or "Sandy Hook Parents," implying the involvement and consent of a much larger group.

I've watched the First Selectman (town executive and "Republican") and the Police Chief speak out for more gun laws while earning a salary that I and other gun owners pay when they should be busy running the town and the police department respectively.

But that's not how all of us feel. As a parent of one of the students who hid in a closet and made it out alive said, "if someone there had had a gun there would be more kids alive today." Amen.

So we gun owners have gone further underground in Newtown then normal Connecticut residents. But I was surprised to find that there are many more of us then I had imagined.

I see them at my business when they open their wallets to pay and I see their pistol permits. I overhear conversations in the diner or the supermarket or the number one place for socializing in town, the dump.

I've had many conversations with neighbors about the second amendment, about shooting and the shooting, about the politicians who are taking advantage of people who have suffered an unspeakable loss that no one should have to endure.

The point is that all of the families of the people slain at Sandy Hook Elementary aren't clamoring to abridge the rights of legal gun owners, just as all of the citizens of Newtown don't agree with the politicians and opportunists who scream for "gun control."

I feel for these people. I really do. They want to do SOMETHING that will stop other families from having to experience the evil they endured. Unfortunately nothing they've had a hand in would have had any effect whatsoever on Adam Lanza and Sandy Hook Elementary if it was in effect when it happened.

I am speaking of the draconian and unconstitutional gun laws that were rushed through a Democrat-controlled State Assembly after the shooting. The idiot Republican who serves as my State Senator helped shepherd the bill through, which arguably destroyed him in the GOP primary for governor, and the idiot Republican who represents me in the State House offered no opposition either. Who could? They were all DOING SOMETHING.

Gun owners said no. They estimate the compliance to the law, including registration of "assault weapons" (redefined) and "high capacity magazines" (10 or more rounds) at about 15%. Neighboring New York passed an even more restrictive law, and compliance there is estimated to be less than 10%, with all the Sheriffs in the state vowing not to enforce the law.

We have no Sheriffs in Connecticut. Just State Police. And they have no plans to start any major enforcement action. They are still trying to complete processing the paperwork for the 15% that DID comply. How did they plan to operate if everyone had complied?

The point is the same old stuff that the anti-gun nuts just can't get into their heads -- you're not going to stop people who have no regard for the law by restricting people who FOLLOW the law.

It doesn't matter whether you needed an "eligibility certificate" to buy a long gun, or a permit to buy ammo, or couldn't legally possess a magazine with more than 10 rounds in it if you're going to shoot your mother in the head and steal her guns. I know...that's terrible. But it's a fact. And that's exactly what Adam Lanza did. Murder is illegal too. How could these people think that Lanza would follow restrictive gun laws if he's willing to murder children?

And then there are the organizations. We have Sandy Hook Promise, a slick, media-friendly organization that has tons of volunteers here in town and in other places, because they're, you know, DOING SOMETHING. Sandy Hook Promise started off as Newtown United, part of the dozens of organizations that millions from all over the world poured into. When generous people were sending flowers and Teddy Bears and so many expressions of sympathy they filled two huge warehouses, they were also writing millions of checks and sending them along. Did any of those generous souls realize that their money would be used to hire a lobbyist to visit legislators throughout the country to try to restrict and complicate their gun ownership?

That's why one of the Sandy Hook parents calls Sandy Hook Promise's donations "blood money."

But they're not the only organization. There are also organizations like the Newtown Action Alliance, an organization dedicated to "reversing the escalating gun violence epidemic." Sigh. It's not escalating. And it's not an epidemic. But whatever. They "had to do something."

According to Guidestar.org, Newtown Action Alliance raised about fifty grand in 2013. The much, much bigger Newtown Promise hasn't provided any information to Guidestar, so who knows, though I've heard they have a deep-pocketed benefactor. Someone speculated it might even be Nanny Bloomberg, but who knows.

I do know I have to listen to them tell me that all they want are things like "universal background checks" and "a ban on high capacity magazines." Well, in Connecticut you need a background check to buy a gun from anyone, anywhere. So that's done. And as far as high capacity magazines go, first off that's subjective. In Connecticut it's 11 or more rounds. In New York it's 8 or more. Regardless, the theory is that reloading gives people time to escape. These are people who obviously have never handled a gun.

As Boone County, Indiana Sheriff Ken Campbell shows on Youtube here, there's just no validity to the theory.

These organizations and these people want to do the same thing they all want to do -- control legal gun ownership. And we will continue to fight it and compliance levels to the ridiculous laws will continue to be low.

Meanwhile politicians like Obama invite the victim's families on Air Force One (if they toe the gun control line), and our wonderful governor blatantly exploits a Sandy Hook victim's mother for his campaign ad here.

No matter what the media and the politicians try to convey, all of the families of the victims and survivors of the shooting aren't gun control crazy. And all of us here in Newtown aren't either. We're just as divided as the rest of the country.

When I asked the guys at The Sportsman in New Holland, PA if they want to see my CT certificate for the ammo purchase. With intense indignation the reply was, “No sir, We are free men in this state.”

My heart was crushed. I realized I was the frog in a pot of cold water with the flame under it.

Thanks for the essay. I just moved to Newtown a couple weeks ago. It really is a very nice town here. People are very friendly here and many of the towns here in Fairfield county lean conservative - which is a nice surprise, being that I came down here from Massachusetts.

"It really is nothing more than a bunch of people “trying to look busy.”"

It was the most poorly planned and poorly organized civil defense drill I've ever seen in my life. Even the local PD were in mixed uniforms, one white shirt about 250 lbs. over weight had trouble keeping up with the other members in SWAT gear "marching nowhere". I used to march in annual parades as a volunteer fireman and we knew how to stage up and join the parade. What really got me was Chris Wallace crying while he interviewed family members of the "deceased" and they smiled emotionless back at him.

Yep. We are all in on it. All 28,000 residents of Newtown. 50 law enforcement agencies. The coroner. The first responders. The 500 students and their families. And no one has leaked. I’ll have some of what you’re on.

Re the “Sandy Hook families,” the media did the same thing with “9/11 families,” and “the Jersey Girls,” i.e., the relatives who agree with the media are cast as ALL the families and do get ALL the attention. It’s simply amazing how that works.

Where was this essay when we needed it in March and April when the gun control laws were being “discussed” by the CT legislature before being passed. (Not that it would have helped to prevent the passage of this insanity)

Nice write-up.

I take I-84 from PA to MA a few times a year. Never stop in CT. No gas, no food, nothing.

The gas especially is overpriced.

Why stay "underground"? Why don't you start getting very vocal and stand up to the bullies? I don't understand.

And...... all first responders including state troopers told to stay away....... emergency air lift helicopters not called to respond...... no emergency traffic got to the school...... no company did the bio-hazard cleanup of all the blood and guts after the event....... Sandy Hook children seen singing in a music group at the super bowl game. CT troopers have quit their jobs over the fraud......

"Yep. We are all in on it. All 28,000 residents of Newtown. 50 law enforcement agencies. The coroner. The first responders. The 500 students and their families. And no one has leaked. I’ll have some of what you’re on."

Thanks!! Many Americans would really appreciate that closure now that you admit it.

I live on the west coast, but was in Sandy Hook last week for a family event. My nephew loaned me his truck, adorned with Pro 2nd Amendment and NRA stickers. I was pleasantly surprised; all the feedback I received was positive, not a word of complaint.

Respectfully, I know it seems like only last year, but the shooting took place in 2012. Thanks for your essay.

You’re the first person to notice I screwed up the date. It does seem like only a year sometimes.

As for why gun owners are underground in Connecticut and surrounding states is, I guess, just because we’re tired of hearing that we’re the bad guys (and gals) and we need to be controlled.

The other reason for me and many of the people I know is that we have businesses in town and can’t afford to publicly antagonize our customers. We all work one on one though, and sometimes we change minds.

The police chief of the next town over lives in Newtown. He actually is a nice guy. He testified when they were considering passing the law they passed that no one has given him a reason why anyone needs more than 10 rounds in their gun. It reminded me of Cuomo’s famous “nobody needs more than seven rounds to kill a deer” statement.

That’s what we face. People in Connecticut lean liberal, even in relatively conservative places like Newtown. They were negative about guns to start with, and the shooting just made it worse for some.

I fully understand.

My nephew has the luxury of being 24 years old, so he has no qualms about his public support, of the 2nd Amendment. Ironically, two of his cousins (other side of the family) were in the classroom, next to the “site” in Sandy Hook. He relates that he has heard so much feedback, expressing that the brave teachers that were there, that day, had been carrying. Seems like we could learn a lesson.

I moved from CT in 1981, to a western state. It saddens me, that the New England cradle of the American Revolution, has become a place where Our Constitution is barely recognizable.

May The Lord Bless you, and all of those who stand for our inalienable rights.

Thank you.

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