Posted on 03/10/2014 8:28:17 AM PDT by Kaslin
>The latest gun control law in Connecticut has crossed a very frightening line. A standoff has been created between the government and tens of thousands of gun owners now considered felons. It marks the beginning of an Orwellian new phase. Gun owners saw it coming, as evidenced by their recent adoption in recent years of the defiant expression “molon labe.” The phrase originated from Spartan General-King Leonidas, who reportedly responded with “Come and get them!” to Persian Emperor Xerxes’ demand that the Spartans surrender their weapons at the Battle of Thermopylae. The Spartans fought valiantly, but were ultimately defeated. With the prequel to the Hollywood bestselling movie 300 just released last week, Americans are now even more aware of the phrase.
Until now, gun control laws hadn’t mandated the confiscation of weapons; generally, banned guns were grandfathered in under previous laws so their current owners could continue to legally own them. The Connecticut law changes all that. Passed last year in response to the Sandy Hook shooting, SB 1160 bans so-called “assault weapons” - certain rifles, more recently known as AR-15s, that have been singled out based on purely cosmetic criteria - and magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.
The firearms have been banned based on how “scary” they look, not their actual usage in crimes. According to a study from the BATF that came out a few years ago, none of the top 10 guns used in crimes in the U.S. were so-called assault weapons; they were all pistols or revolvers. In fact, the #5 gun used in crimes was a shotgun, which Vice President Joe Biden advised Americans last year to use for self-defense.
The only way to legally retain one of these newly banned firearms or magazines in Connecticut now is to register it - but most gun owners do not want their name on a government list. They are well aware that a list of gun owners can someday be used by the government for confiscation. If gun owners didn’t register their firearms or magazines prior to the December 31, 2013 deadline mandated by the legislation, their firearms will be subject to confiscation and the owners considered guilty of a felony.
So far, it appears that the vast majority of gun owners affected by the legislation did not register their guns prior to the December 31 deadline, making between 50,000 and 350,000 gun owners felons. This is frightening, considering the law doesn’t just make the violation a misdemeanor, it makes it a felony, which could result in a prison sentence. Fewer than 50,000 gun owners registered their firearms by the deadline to comply with the law.
Gun owners who sent in their applications for registration after the deadline have reported already receiving letters by the government instructing them to get rid of their guns. The Hartford Courant notes that the government has records of gun owners who went through background checks in order to purchase AR-15s. The government could potentially go after any of those gun owners who failed to register their guns.
There is shock that gun owners are showing defiance. "I honestly thought from my own standpoint that the vast majority would register," said Sen. Tony Guglielmo, R-Stafford, the ranking GOP senator on the legislature's public safety committee. "If you pass laws that people have no respect for and they don't follow them, then you have a real problem."
On January 30, Federal District Court judge Alfred V. Covello upheld the law in Shew v. Malloy. While he admitted that it placed a substantial burden on the Second Amendment, he claimed that it “substantially related to the important governmental interest of public safety and crime control.” It is astonishing that a judge would use that as justification, considering even Congress sunsetted the federal assault weapons ban due to a lack of evidence showing it was effective.
Many judges come up with rulings based on their personal political views, or are pressured into a certain decision by outside special interests. Judicial activism is nothing new. Judicial activists have successfully forced a tortured, restricted interpretation of the Second Amendment over the years, in order to diminish its validity. Covello’s disappointing decision is currently being appealed, backed by the powerful NRA.
Trying to prosecute 50,000 to 350,000 gun owners would be insanity. The liberal activist politicians who passed the foolish legislation in response to an emotional response to the Sandy Hook Shooting do not represent the will of the people who elected them, who want the Constitution upheld. In many ways, the Second Amendment is our most important right, because without it, we cannot protect any of our other rights. There is a reason why it is the Second Amendment, not the 30th Amendment.
Requiring gun owners to register their firearms puts them on a fast track with sex offenders, who are required to register with the government so they can be monitored for the rest of their lives. If gun owners fail to register for tracking, they are then treated like criminals, just like sex offenders. This is bizarre, considering lawful gun owners are merely patriotic Americans concerned about protecting their cherished rights. AR-15s aren’t guns used in crimes, but are popular guns for self-defense and target shooting.
Connecticut Carry, a leading gun rights organization in the state, is daring the government to come after gun owners. The stage is being set for massive civil disobedience unless the law is changed. Many prosecutors and law enforcement officers are not going to uphold a law this heavy-handed; nevertheless, this ill-conceived legislation, pushed through by gun-control activists, is going to pit many law-abiding law enforcement officers against thousands of patriotic, American freedom-loving gun owners. It is terrifying that here in America, innocent gun owners would be put in the same category as sex offenders, turning them into felons. Connecticut governor Dannel Malloy (D), who signed SB 1160, seems to have become another King Xerxes. This time around, will the Spartans in Connecticut prevail?
What I meant is that they have no other choice if they actually want to enforce this law.
Sure, they could go to the door of everyone they suspect of having one of these weapons, based on their records, and demand entry or surrender...but only a complete fool or idiot would accede.
They cannot obtain a warrant based on those background check records.
Now, what I personally would like to see is 10,000 of these rifle owners rally, with their weapons, on the Capitol Steps...taunting LEO, Elected officials and media.
They just better make sure these weapons are loaded.
There was an article posted which pointed out that 25 officers had signed an open letter in opposition to the gun confiscations. My suspicion is that the majority of officers want no part of kicking in doors to confiscate firearms from law abiding citizens. There was one officer who made a statement about how he can't wait to kick in a door, but thus far, at least publicly, he is heavily outnumbered.
Don't forget jury nullification. We have to educate conservatives in CT and nationwide on the importance of that power. If any decent person is called for jury duty in a gun rights case, it's important to get on that jury by being truthful but not helpful (think Bill Clinton under oath) and then to vote 'Not Guilty' regardless of the letter of the law. An unjust law is no law, and it's the jury's job to ignore such laws no matter what the judge or an unconstitutional written law may say.
I assume the government jackboots could not just kick your door in and look for unregistered guns. Wouldn’t they need a court issued warrant to do this? I also assume that there would have to be some due process to allow a court trial. If my assumptions are wrong and the government could simply kick in my door on the suspicion I had an illegal firearm and confiscate it on the spot and haul me off to jail, then a line has been crossed and the citizens of Connecticut are living in a police state. In that case resistance in any form is warranted.
The state assumed that folks would just do as they were told.
Now they have to answer the question of whether they want to enforce the law, which might take a lot of blood and money. You’re talking formal LEO funerals, life insurance payouts, a swollen prison population, courtroom costs, personnel payroll, uncooperative sheriffs, on and on.
Just the insurance costs alone for law enforcement is a game ender.
Uh, not quite. The writer is obviously unfamiliar with the New Jersey "assault weapons" ban jammed through the legislature by Gov. James Florio in the early 1990s. It BANNED the possession of a whole list of guns, plus any magazine capable of holding more than 15 rounds...and it is still on the books. NO GRANDFATHERING AT ALL!
Now NJ's rat-controlled legislature is about to give Gov. Christie a bill that outlaws any magazine over 10 rounds, and it'll outlaw tube-fed .22s that hold more than 10 rounds. We'll see what fat boy does - try to please his sheople in NJ, or try to not piss off Republicans around the country by signing it.
NJ never went door-to-door to collect anything - they just used the gutless way out, that of tacking on charges to anyone who the arrested who also had a prohibited weapon or magazine. I left that $hithole in 2000, and had about 200 years worth of prohibited mags sitting 18 inches behind my arse as I passed the "Welcome to Delaware" sign on the way out. As we passed the sign, I told my wife, "Now you won't have to bail me out of jail." When I explained why, she turned white as a sheet. She asked me, "They don't have laws like that in Texas, do they?" I told her, "No, Texas is in America."
The Left will pick and choose and select easy targets to intimidate the rest of non-compliers. They will publicize a high profile felony arrest and trial to show what they are prepared to do. The only way short of armed resistance to force this tyranny back is for gun owners and Second Amendment organizations to hound, follow, and confront the individual state legislators everywhere they go until this law is repealed.
Gun control for dummies - It’s common sense.
Good explanation of the 3rd Amendment and the BILL OF RIGHTS
http://www.youtube.com/embed/F584p5kJL-U?rel=0****
Defenders of the Alamo, also.
If, with the stroke of a pen, you pass laws that violate the Rights granted by the Creator to all mankind and turn upwards of a third of a million people into felons then you have a real problem.
Can you say "overreach"? I knew you could. This one's gonna blow up in their faces.
There are probably 10,000 of these rifle owners or many, many more who have owned them way before they needed papers to own them.
But there were NO REQUIREMENTS to have a paper trail for the sale or trade of ANY long guns - they may know who bought them, but have no way of knowing who HAVE them.
He may be outnumbered, but how does the homeowner know he isn’t the cop battering down the door or otherwise executing a warrant to seize your weapon?
I predict the state will attempt to enforce this by revoking driver’s licences and vehicle registrations.
They’re going to run out of cops much faster than they think they will too.
Have friends up in CT. One of them commented on the sudden appearane of pro-2nd Amendment bumper stickers on the civilian vehicles in the employee parking lot at his local police dept hq.
There have been a couple instance of a**hole cops talking smack about busting down doors. There are a heck of a lot MORE cops who are going to suddenly find somewhere better to be should confiscation orders be issued.
I'm not addressing whether the law is Constitutional.
I am saying ONLY that if they want to enforce it they are not currently empowered...nor are they likely to ever be...to go kicking down doors based on a list of background checks.
Do not think for a minute that I'm advocate for this law, nor for any LEO that is corrupt enough to attempt enforcement. No do I believe that it's legal under the Constitution.
"Dissent is patriotic." - Hillary Clinton
These coppers have got to understand that they have no protections that cannot be overcome. The locals whose doors they kick in and arrest the homeowners know who these cops are, where they live as well as about their families. I say families because cops do have a tendency to kill innocents in houses they bust into.
After all, the TV show “COPS” is where many of them learn the perceived attitudes and actions of the police departments.
http://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2013/01/07/bracken-dear-mr-security-agent/
The Yellow Line: crossed.
The Red Line: crossed.
Running out of lines in CT.
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