petebrunelli

When I applied for a concealed carry permit in CT it was apparent that this wasn’t some rubber stamp process.

• Town, State and Federal background checks with fingerprinting.
• Three written reference letters.
• NRA Safety Certificate.
• Local and State review before approval.
• 5-year review and renewal process

For the reference letters I needed to involve friends and family in the process.  For the prints and background checks I needed to meet with my local police department.  In short, I went through everything involved in a major crimes arrest except for the arrest record, and had to deal with law enforcement in-person to get through that process.

Note that in CT you do not need a carry permit to purchase a rifle or shotgun, though it does help out on the paperwork.  You do have to have your ID run though a background check database.  As long as you come up clean you can buy all you can afford.  So on one hand, Connecticut is a strict state from a Gun Control perspective.  On the other it is not a lot harder to purchase an AR-15 than it is to purchase a lawnmower.

The only control over gun storage occurs “after the fact”.  In the case of the Newtown shootings Nancy Lanza might be in jail right now if she had not been murdered by her son, but there is no up-front control over storage of and access to guns.  No limits on quantity of ammunition.  As well, the limits on magazine capacity and ammunition type are only enforced ex post facto.  That is true across the nation.  Can we as a nation tolerate the intrusion necessary to separate gun control over ownership limits?  According to the NRA, the answer is no.  Maybe that is where the front line on this conversation might be best drawn.