Meanwhile, CT to Ban High Cap Mags and IL to Out Gun Owners

Wyoming’s transformation into a Constitutional Carry state represents the growing movement towards greater gun rights, away from the gun control-o-mania that led to the Clinton-era Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act (Assault Weapons Ban to you and me). And yet it’s clear that hard-core anti-gun blue states didn’t get the memo. Emboldened by the wretchedly vague “reasonable restrictions” caveat in the recent Supreme Court McDonald decision, exploiting the Arizona spree killers’ decision to use a high-capacity magazine, realizing that the federal bill to ban high cap mags is going nowhere slowly, Connecticut legislators have introduced Bill 1094. “An Act Banning Large Capacity Magazines” would make simple possession of 10+ mags a Class D felony. That’s one to five years in prison, a $5k fine and no more guns for you Bub). Check out who’s exempted . . .

(1) Members or employees of organized local police departments, the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Correction or the military or naval forces of this state or of the United States for use in the discharge of their official duties;

(2) A person, corporation or other entity that manufactures large capacity magazines for persons specified in subdivision (1) of this subsection or for export in accordance with federal regulations;

(3) Any person engaged in the business of selling or transferring large capacity magazines in accordance with state and federal regulations who possesses such magazines solely for the purpose of such sale or transfer; or

(4) A gunsmith who possesses such large capacity magazine for the purpose of maintenance, repair or modification.

So law enforcement can use high-capacity magazines to, what? Keep the peace? Protect themselves from bad guys? While civilians can’t be trusted with that much uninterrupted firepower. And companies inside Connecticut can continue making high cap mags for other states or countries ’cause it’s not about money. Or it is. And gunsmiths need high cap mags for maintenance?

Worse, the word on the street says the CT bill will include a provision requiring owners of existing high cap mags to turn them in. Yup, you heard right: the government of The Constitution State wants to confiscate private property. And if this thing has the force of law, then yes, they can get a search warrant and no-knock your ass for a high cap mag.

OK, so, over to The Land of Lincoln, where the AG has directed the state police to surrender their Firearms Owner Identification Card data to the Associated Press.

To cut that one off at the pass, gun rights legislators put together a bill prohibiting any such move. As boston.com reports, HB007 (true story) sputtered and died in committee, when the House Judiciary Committee grid-locked at 5 – 5. To their credit, the IL state police say they won’t go there—unless they have to.

State police officials, who claimed that Illinois law bars the disclosure because it is an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, said they will challenge the ruling in court.

Madigan’s decree refuted the police assertions about privacy and said officials had not proven their contention that making the records public would jeopardize anyone’s safety.

The Illinois State Rifle Association disagreed. Director Richard Pearson said “there is no legitimate reason for anyone to have access to the information.”

“The safety of real people is at stake here,” Pearson said in a statement. “Once this information is released, it will be distributed to street gangs and gun-control groups who will use the data to target gun owners for crime and harassment.”

Updates as they arrive.