Free Republic

Bridgeport, CT – Today, a widely-anticipated lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Connecticut, challenging the constitutionality of the new firearms law that was passed hastily by the Connecticut legislature in response to the tragic shooting in Newtown by a disturbed individual. The lawsuit seeks immediate injunctive relief and a ruling declaring the new law unconstitutional under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It alleges that Connecticut’s new firearms law is not only unconstitutional but dangerous, since it makes both citizens and law enforcement less safe by depriving citizens of firearms that are in common use throughout the...

WASHINGTON - A Senate panel voted Tuesday to provide weapons to rebels battling the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the first time lawmakers have endorsed the aggressive U.S. military step of arming the opposition. ... "The greatest humanitarian crisis in the world is unfolding in and around Syria," said Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), the committee chief. ". . . The United States must play a role in tipping the scales toward opposition groups and working to build a free and democratic Syria." Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the panel's top Republican, implicitly criticized the Obama administration as he...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) blasted members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday, which voted overwhelmingly to arm elements of the Syrian opposition in a bill co-sponsored by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN). "This is an important moment," Paul said, addressing his Senate colleagues. "You will be funding, today, the allies of al Qaeda. It's an irony you cannot overcome." The legislation, which would authorize the shipment of arms and military training to rebels "that have gone through a thorough vetting process," passed in a bipartisan 15-3 vote. Paul offered an amendment that would strike the...

A program in Palm Beach County intended to encourage residents to report suspicious behavior is attracting resistance from around the state. Under the proposed "Violence Prevention Program," anyone who sees a potentially dangerous situation — a schizophrenic person with weapons, a war veteran making threats to passersby — could call a 24-hour hotline. Legitimate-sounding calls would trigger a visit by specially trained deputies in plain clothes or by mental health professionals. The Palm Beach County Sheriff says violence prevention unit could thwart would-be killers like the recent mass shooters in Connecticut and Colorado. The program will cost $3.2 million in...

Fox is reporting a train has derailed in Connecticut. 20 to 25 injured. Two trains collided.

Just got a text message from my 16 year old North Haven High School in lockdown due to a home invasion on Elm Street (same street as school) I'm sure it's just a precaution, but moms still worry. And we live right next door to the school, so I'm in lockdown here too :-(

Five weeks after Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed a gun control law outlawing any retail sales for the entire product line of Stag Arms, the maker of military-style rifles unveiled a new design Thursday that its owner said will not be subject to the Connecticut ban. From the outside, the new firearm looks identical to other Stag rifles, complete with matte black finish, pistol grip and adjustable stock. Stag owner Mark Malkowski showed a prototype of the new rifle in the shipping room of his New Britain plant, explaining why he feels certain that it's legal. It's not a radical...

New Haven resident Josemaria Islas received a major show of support from Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy one week before he is required to report to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office in Hartford, where he may be detained for deportation. In a letter addressed to ICE Director John Morton, Murphy requested that ICE grant Islas a stay of removal, which would allow the Mexican native to remain in the country for the time being. Murphy cited pending federal immigration reform, which could significantly change Islas’ legal status in the United States, as a reason not to deport him.

President Barack Obama delivered an impassioned speech Thursday at the memorial service for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. But that was to be expected. We all know Obama can give a stem-winder. What wasn’t expected was that this would be by far the toughest week of the Obama presidency—the first time I can remember the president being dealt an unequivocal policy defeat. Only the “shellacking” of the 2010 midterm comes close, and even there a case can be made that achieving the decades-old progressive dream of universal health care was worth losing the House of Representatives and a filibuster-proof...

Uhm… nailed it? (VIDEO-AT-LINK) I guess I appreciate the honesty of the Republican caucus. They’ve just made it clear that they are just kind of gun-control Darwinists at this point. They just think that we should give a whole bunch of guns to the good guys and to the bad guys and let them shoot it out, and hope that the good guys win. That’s their agenda, and a lot of that was made plain today. Well, that was a feisty enough bit of demagoguery to rival some of President Obama‘s preferred tactics. I’m pretty sure that the the good...

Of all the senators who attempted Wednesday to rally support for the doomed Manchin-Toomey background check amendment, Connecticut's Democratic freshman representative, Chris Murphy, probably faced the greatest temptation to borrow the moral authority of the Newtown families. They are his constituents and many were present in the chamber. He's young – the youngest sitting senator, actually – and an early Obama supporter, given to occasional bouts of (understandably) overwrought emotional rhetoric. During his very first floor speech as a senator last week, which itself took on gun legislation, he read the names of the Newtown victims – and some of...

It’s not often that the confiscation crowd is nakedly honest, but when they think they’re just preaching to the choir, they might forget the heathens are listening, too. That was the case in Sunday’s New York Times column by Maureen Dowd when Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy blurted out the real goal of the gun grabbers: Getting weapons out of your hands means getting the vote out of your hands, too. “You’re not going to disenfranchise the NRA overnight,” Murphy told Dowd. “Disenfranchise.” This isn’t the usual, misty-eyed “if it will save one life” claptrap; and the speaker isn’t some unshaven...

HARTFORD — Police are investigating a recorded disturbance on a bus during which a screaming woman tossed her baby into the lap of a passenger so she could fight another woman. Neither the baby — nor the woman she proceeded to fight — was believed to be injured.

Last Thursday, 03/03/11, we reported that there is a bill under consideration in the Connecticut legislature that would require confiscation of all magazines with a capacity of over ten rounds that remain in the state 90 days after the bill becomes law, if it does. Now, the geniuses in Massachusetts are proposing going Connecticut one better. Its a state commission to study the feasibility of requiring Global Positioning Systems (GPS) locators in firearms. Here is the bill:

Last week, Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy signed into law what advocacy groups are heralding as the strictest gun limits in the nation, including measures that expand the state’s list of banned ‘assault’ weapons and restrict magazine capacities to ten rounds — and it didn’t take long for one of Connecticut’s gun manufacturers to follow suit on a phenomenon that’s already started in other states. A manufacturer of military-style rifles says it is leaving Connecticut and is encouraging other companies to do the same after last week’s signing of sweeping gun legislation.PTR Industries of Bristol said the bill approved by the...

I firmly believe why the MSM up until recently failed to report on the trial of Dr. Gosnell is the fact that they would look hypocritical along with President Obama, who has been using the deaths of 23 innocent children at Sandy Hook Elementary to push for new gun control measures in the Congress, but the truth of the matter is that is you took all of Dr. Gosnell's victims and total them up you would come up with more than 9000 Sandy Hook Victims. The other reason for the media blackout is the fact that the trial would calling...

SEE: Collins,King vote to continue gun debate WASHINGTON — Maine`s two U.S. senators voted with the majority Thursday to move forward with debate on a package of gun-control measures prompted by December's mass shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut. I would love to hear Collins explain to her constituents in Maine, under what part of the federal Constitution have they delegated a power to the federal government to enter Main and regulate the ownership of firearms. I do know Maine’s Declaration of Rights stipulates in crystal clear language that: Section 16. To keep and bear arms. Every citizen has...

“The reason I haven’t written about Mr. Gosnell is the same reason Philadelphia journalists don’t write about homicide trials in Detroit” The butchery of infants born alive after abortions at the Philadelphia clinic run by Kermit Gosnell is gruesome beyond description, as described in my prior post, A Culture of Death is their choice. The details are not new. The horrific Grand Jury Report (h/t Dave Weigel) was issued over two years ago. Yet this mass murder, reportedly of 100 infants although only seven cases were charged, has been met with near silence by the mainstream media.

Think Murdoch will take his “advice,” knowing what the reaction would be among Fox News’s many, many gun-rights-supporting viewers? Don’t mind Murphy. He’s a freshman from a very blue state where feelings are still understandably raw after Newtown, so apparently he’s decided that no anti-gun grandstanding opportunity is too cheap for him to use to try to raise his profile back home. Coming soon, presumably: Murphy calls on NASCAR to drop the N, R, and A’s from its name. The National Rifle Association-sponsored NASCAR race slated for this weekend is “inappropriate in the immediate wake of the Newtown massacre,” Sen....

Texas Governor Rick Perry on Friday said a gun manufacturer that has decided to leave Connecticut should "come on down" to the Lone Star State. PTR Industries, a maker of military-style rifles, threatened to leave Connecticut after the passage of one of the toughest gun-control laws in the United States. Connecticut enacted the measure in the wake of the Newtown school shooting that killed 20 first-graders and six adults. "Hey, PTR," Perry posted on Twitter on Friday. "Texas is still wide open for business!! Come on down!" The Connecticut law bans high-capacity ammunition clips of the kind used in the...

There were a lot of pictures of Ronald Reagan in the newspapers this week, and it felt a little weird. It’s been almost a quarter of a century since the president left the White House and close to a decade since he died, and I have grown less accustomed to his face. It was a blast from the past. There again was the Hollywood smile, the Windsor knot, the pompadour and, in every image, his trusty comrade in ideological arms from across the ocean, Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister who died on Monday aged 87. On this side...

Jeff Epstein is a personal friend of mine. I have been shooting partners with him, befriended him and his wife and children and trust him implicitly. WEAPONS OF CHOICE Constitution State becomes Nanny State Exclusive: Jeffrey Epstein gives blow-by-blow from Capitol where gun laws were OK'd Published: 18 hours ago By Jeffrey M. Epstein Connecticut’s April fools were out in full force at the State Capitol last Wednesday. While the legislators were preparing to vote, hundreds of Second Amendment advocates arrived to voice their opposition to the anti-gun measures being advanced by Gov. Malloy’s “bipartisan” task force – laws allegedly...

It’s being reported that Connecticut AR-15 manufacturer Stag Arms may be following Colt Competition and PTR Industries and leaving the state.The Associated Press is reporting that Mark Malkowski, president of Stag Arms, spoke Tuesday with Texas economic development officials trying to lure the company, which was founded in 2003 and employs more than 200 employees.“It’s something we’ll strongly consider,” he said, adding that leaving Connecticut would be difficult. “If you’re a lawyer with a laptop, that’s one thing,” he said. “It’s not something we’re going to do easily.”You can read more here.

BRISTOL — A Connecticut gun-maker has announced Wednesday it intends to leave the state following the passage of gun control legislation it says tramples on the rights of citizens and does not show enough consideration for the industry. Bristol-based PTR says in a statement posted on its website that it has not decided where it will move, but it has commitments from most employees to relocate. The company makes military-style rifles and employs more than 40 people. PTR Vice President John McNamara said Wednesday that it expects to make a more formal announcement about a move within six weeks. The...

WASHINGTON — President Obama is returning to Connecticut on Monday to again memorialize the victims of the school massacre there and to continue his push for what he calls “common-sense measures to reduce gun violence” at the start of a potentially make-or-break week for gun-control legislation in Congress.

President Obama has been calling Republican and Democratic senators on Tuesday to discuss the gun-control vote, a White House official said. Obama is expected to reach out to between half a dozen to a dozen senators in all, the official said. The White House would not provide the call list, so it's unclear whether Obama is reaching out to Republican senators who have promised to filibuster gun-control legislation. As part of the lobbying effort, Obama is telling senators that gun-control legislation "deserves a vote," the official said. The president is expected to reiterate his message in recent days that Congress...

BRISTOL – A Bristol gun manufacturer is going to leave Connecticut because of the gun control measure adopted by the state last week. “With a heavy heart but a clear mind, we have been forced to decide that our business can no longer survive in Connecticut – the former Constitution state,” declared PTR Industries in a statement released on its website.

What appears to be the gun-control crowd's most winnable argument is as irrational as the rest. The Hartford Courant reports that on April 1, Connecticut legislators reached bipartisan agreement on what they say could be the “nation’s strongest gun-control bill,” and that easy passage is expected. One of the bills provisions: scary-looking semi-automatic rifles (“assault weapons”) will now need only one frightening feature (such as a pistol grip or flash suppressor) instead of the current two to make the banned list. A second: future sales of “high-capacity magazines” of over 10 rounds will be banned. This is the one element...

On April 4, Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy signed 139 pages of gun control legislation into law, effectively telling the $1.7 billion gun industry that has called his state home for more than a century they are no longer welcome. Speaking for Colt Manufacturing, which has been in Connecticut for 175 years, president and CEO Dennis Veilleux said, "At some point, if you can't sell your product then you can't run your business... You need customers to buy your products to stay in business." Other prominent Connecticut-based gun companies include Mossberg, Ruger, and Stag Arms, all of which are being...

Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy had some harsh words for NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre on Sunday, comparing the gun lobby chief to "clowns at the circus." Appearing on CNN's "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley, Malloy hit back at LaPierre over his dismissal of Connecticut's strict new gun laws. "Wayne reminds me of the clowns at the circus. They get the most attention," Malloy said. "And that's what he's paid to do. But the reality is is that the gun that was used to kill 26 people on Dec. 14 was legally purchased in the state of Connecticut, even though...

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy compared the head of the National Rifle Association to “clowns at the circus” for his comments about the state’s new gun laws. Mr. Malloy, a Democrat, signed legislation last week that requires background checks on all firearm purchases, bans magazines with more than 10 rounds of ammunition and adds more than 100 weapons to the state’s ban on semiautomatic rifles often called assault weapons. NRA Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre said the legislation only makes “the law books thicker for the law-abiding people.” “The criminals, the drug dealers, the people that are going to do horror...

The case of a same-sex Connecticut couple accused of repeatedly raping and abusing two of their nine adopted boys is headed for trial. Married couple George Harasz and Douglas Wirth of Glastonbury were supposed to be sentenced Friday in Hartford Superior Court under a plea deal, but instead withdrew from their agreement with prosecutors. The men had already pleaded no contest in January to one felony count each of risk of injury to a minor — a reduction from even more serious charges related to sexual assault. But in a surprise turn, the couple’s attorneys pulled them out of...

Sen Mark Begich declared a “sea change” in the politics of gun control immediately after the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., telling his local newspaper that he would not hesitate to buck the powerful National Rifle Association. Over the past two weeks, while Congress has been in recess, Begich said he was approached repeatedly by constituents who echoed NRA views, telling him not to, in his words, “mess with our gun rights” or “ban anything.” The NRA’s recent successes on Capitol Hill — as well as a string of victories in state legislatures across the country — demonstrate the effectiveness...

Clothing maker The Warnaco Group, recently acquired by New York City-based PVH Corp., is closing its operations at 470 Wheeler's Farms Road in Milford in early June and is laying off 208 people in the process. The layoffs are part of 1,000 that PVH is making as it closes former Warnaco's offices in Florence, Italy; Duncansville, Pa.; Huntingdon, Pa.; New York City, and Hong Kong, in addition to Milford. PVH, which owns and markets the Tommy Hilfiger brand, announced in October it was acquiring Warnaco, whose brands included Calvin Klein and Speedo swimwear, and completed the $2.8 billion cash and...

Either (a) Obama is referring to a different shooting, which I doubt, (b) I missed a major update to the Newtown story, (c) he knows something we don't, or (d) he has roughly the same mastery of gun fundamentals as magazine expert Diana DeGette. From last night's DCCC fundraiser in San Francisco: Now, over the next couple of months, weÂ’ve got a couple of issues: gun control. (Applause.) I just came from Denver, where the issue of gun violence is something that has haunted families for way too long, and it is possible for us to create common-sense gun safety...

Looking at the Ruger SR1911 - while it's (still) legal here in CT.Would also welcome knowledgable/experienced FReeper input on relocation options for those able to leave Connecticut. Preferably somewhere warmer, but not sweltering, family/tax/gun friendly, with some elbow room to enjoy life. Overseas is not off the table.

Gun stores all over Connecticut were packed Tuesday, one day before lawmakers were expected to vote on a sweeping package of laws that would ban military-style assault weapons and magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. “They’re insane. I’ve never seen them so busy before,” shopper Shari Reilly, who bought up several high-capacity magazines, told NBC Connecticut. Gov. Dannel P. Molloy, a Democrat, has said he will sign what could be “the toughest law passed anywhere in the country" -- if it gets through the legislature. Connecticut would become the latest of a handful of states – following Colorado and...

“They tried to hide it, but we got access to it,” Rich Burgess, President of Connecticut Carry, wrote last night in an email to supporters. “Good to leak their plans far and wide, even though there is nothing likely to stop it at this point." “It”? “This is the working draft of the legislation that is to be voted on and signed into law tomorrow in Connecticut,” Burgess explained. “We are about to enter a new phase in history here.” He’s right, and that realization is reflected by a CBS News report that “Customers packed gun stores around Connecticut on...

Connecticut will fall to the onrushing darkness of firearms prohibition, and the rest of America will too, in time. The prohibition package up for a vote in the Connecticut State Senate April 3 is a doozie: serialization and registration of commonly-available magazines, bans on magazines exceeding a paltry 10-round capacity, and prohibition by name and model of over 100 different guns. Worst of all, full registration of all firearms transfers will be required in CT; this is the Orwellian-named "universal background checks." If you want to know more about this mess, there's better reporting than mine. There are firearms owners...

Connecticut state lawmakers came to an agreement Monday on what they said will become some of the nation’s toughest gun control laws. As CBS 2′s Lou Young reported, the deal included a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines, such as the one that was used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre in Newtown. The deal also calls for a new registry for existing high-capacity magazines, and background checks that would apply to private gun sales. Another registry would be set up for dangerous weapons offenders. The deal also calls for an expansion of the Connecticut assault weapons ban, listing more...

<p>NORTH HAVEN — A half-dozen workers were in otherwise empty offices Friday at The Marlin Firearms Co. as the company wound down 141 years of manufacturing in Connecticut.</p> <p>A security phone at the visitor's gate was unattended next to a large barren parking lot off Bailey Road near I-91. A reception room that resembles a ski lodge, complete with a fireplace, was dark. The few people left working Friday declined to comment, but one employee said there were six people inside and that Friday was their last day of work.</p>

Connecticut pols strike deal to expand assault-weapons ban, restrict high-capacity magazines"Connecticut lawmakers announced a deal Monday which would include a ban on new high-capacity ammunition magazines like the ones used in the massacre that left 20 children and six educators dead. The proposal includes new registration requirements for existing magazines that carry 10 or more bullets. The package also creates what lawmakers said is the nation's first statewide dangerous weapon offender registry, creates a new "ammunition eligibility certificate," imposes immediate universal background checks for all firearms sales, and extends the state's assault weapons ban to 100 new types of firearms...

With an announcement of sweeping proposals to curb gun violence, Connecticut lawmakers said they are hoping to send a message to Congress and other state legislators across the country: A bipartisan agreement on gun control is possible. Legislative leaders on Monday revealed proposals spurred by the Dec. 14 Newtown school shooting following weeks of bipartisan, closed-door negotiations. A vote is expected Wednesday in the General Assembly, where Democrats control both chambers, making passage all but assured.

Connecticut lawmakers announced a deal Monday on what they called some of the toughest gun laws in the country that were proposed after the December mass shooting in the state, including a ban on new high-capacity ammunition magazines like the ones used in the massacre that left 20 children and six educators dead. The proposal includes new registration requirements for existing magazines that carry 10 or more bullets, something of a disappointment for some family members of Newtown victims who wanted an outright ban on the possession of all high-capacity magazines and traveled to the state Capitol on Monday to...

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, accused President Barack Obama of using the Sandy Hook school shooting for political gain on Thursday.((snip)) "It is saddening to see the president today, once again, try to take advantage of this tragic murder to promote an agenda that will do nothing to stop violent crime, but will undermine the constitutional rights of all law-abiding Americans," Cruz said in statement.

Adam Lanza stayed at home mostly, a witness said, playing video games such as "Call of Duty." But on December 14, 2012, he went out -- armed with 10 30-round magazines for his semiautomatic Bushmaster .223 caliber model XM15 rifle and bullets for his two handguns and a shotgun. Lanza didn't make it home alive. Nor did the 26 people -- 20 of them schoolchildren ages 6 and 7 -- he shot dead in less than five minutes, firing one bullet roughly every two seconds he was at Sandy Hook Elementary School. These were among the details spelled out Thursday...

FULL TITLE: Pals of footballers accused in Connecticut high school rape case STILL defending them and bullying 13-year-old victims as they post grinning Instagram photo with Twitter hashtag demanding '#FreeEdgar' Friends of three Connecticut high school students charged with statutory rape of two 13-year-old girls have continued to support the defendants, attack the victims and make light of the serious offenses, a week after the story made national headlines. In a frightening display of ignorance, 10 students at Torrington High School posted an Instagram photo of themselves posing in the school gymnasium making hand gestures which spell out '21,' the...

The liberal media's push for gun control has long included the tactic of attempting to shame the National Rifle Association (NRA) and other gun rights activists into silence. That tactic was once again deployed by MSNBC's Thomas Roberts this morning in his interview with liberal Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), who is calling on the nation's oldest civil rights organization to cease and desist robocalls to phone numbers in the Newtown, Connecticut, area. At no point in the softball interview, however, was it mentioned that some Newtown parents like Mark Mattioli and Bill Stevens have testified in opposition to fresh...

Colt Manufacturing is considering leaving the state of Connecticut after being thrust into the limelight in the national debate over gun control and the Second Amendment. Dennis Veilleux, president and CEO of Colt, said that the pro-gun control climate that has emerged from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting has made it difficult to do business in the state of Connecticut, and that the company doesn’t feel welcome despite doing business there for 175 years. Particularly, proposed legislation by Governor Dannel Malloy has made Colt feel estranged from Connecticut. Such legislation includes a new gun offender registry, an expanded assault...

Colt's Manufacturing, the company that has made the iconic gun dubbed "The Peacemaker" for more than a century, could pull up its Connecticut stakes after coming under fire in the national debate over the Second Amendment. President and CEO Dennis Veilleux said the pro-gun control climate that has taken hold in the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre and other firearm attacks has left him feeling unwelcome in the state his company has called home for 175 years. Proposed laws being debated by the Legislature and pushed by Gov. Dannel Malloy include a new gun offender registry, an expanded...