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.