HARTFORD, Conn. — With thousands of shootings already this year nationwide, Connecticut lawmakers clashed Monday over Gov. Ned Lamont’s proposals to restrict the purchase and use of guns.
Lamont’s multi-pronged plan calls for preventing anyone under 21 from buying any gun, limiting handgun purchases, requiring registration of previously grandfathered assault weapons and increasing penalties regarding large-capacity magazines.
His 73-page plan is also seeking to ban the “open carry” of a gun and prevent anyone from buying more than one handgun per month. The purchasing restriction is designed to reduce “straw” purchases in which a person might buy 20 guns and then sell them on the streets — often to convicted criminals who are not eligible to purchase a gun legally due to their criminal record.
