Is Connecticut Preparing for Large Scale Gun Grab?

Speculation about how the state of Connecticut would respond to the thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of gun owners who failed to register their firearms by December 31 ended when the state police sent out this letter to all those who registered late, but who in the process gave the state sufficient information to brand them as criminals: name, address, description of weapon or magazine, and date of ownership:

Dear Sir/Madam:

We are returning your application for assault weapon certificate and/or large capacity magazine declaration because it was not received or postmarked prior to January 1, 2014 as required by law.

As a result, you have the following options for your assault weapon …

1. Render the assault weapon permanently inoperable;

2. Sell the assault weapon to a licensed gun dealer;

3. Remove the assault weapon from the state, or …

4. Relinquish the assault weapon to a police department or to the [state’s] Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection….

Sincerely,

Lt. Eric Cooke, Commanding Officer, Special Licensing and Firearms Unit

The video below contains more information and an insightful look at the potential gun grab.

According to some news reports, perhaps as many as 100,000 citizens in Connecticut are “out of compliance” with the new law. If just three percent of those are determined enough to stand their ground against door-to-door searches or other strategies to confiscate weapons, how will that resistance be met? Could it escalate? Could it spread? Could it turn neutrals into partisans? These are all questions that the Vanderboegh letter fails to address, but the risks are real. The consequences predicted by Lawlor and now being warned of by letters to brand new self-confessed felons who are out of compliance could be beyond imagining. It’s time for de-escalation, not escalation. Vanderboegh would certainly agree with that. Things are starting to heat up in Connecticut.