New Londoners Take Lead Role In Challenging Connecticut Gun Laws

This story was written and reported by Stratford Patch Editor Jason Bagley.

A lawsuit to be filed against Connecticut's sweeping new gun laws will argue that the legislation signed into law by Governor Malloy in April was not properly vetted and pushed through in a way that snubbed the opinion of some gun owners.  

"We got shafted," said Lenny Benedetto, vice president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, a 7,000-member nonprofit founded in 2009 that is currently fundraising for a fight in court.

Scott Wilson, president and co-founder of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, is a New London resident. The first legal challengeto the laws was filed by New London resident Scott Ennis, founder of Disabled Americans for Firearms Rights. Ennis' lawsuit argues that the laws' restrictions on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips restrict disabled residents from acquiring guns that are more customizable to their disabilities.

"There was no dialogue between us and the committee," Benedetto, of Stratford, said of his group's testimony on proposed gun legislation with the Sandy Hook Advisory Committee, a panel created by Malloy to recommend legislative changes after the mass school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Benedetto said he was among the thousands to testify on the proposed gun reform, which included expanding the state's assault weapons ban and establishing universal background checks, both of which Malloy would eventually sign into law. But the committee asked no questions in return, which was not the case at other public hearings on issues concerning mental health or school safety, Benedetto claimed.

Benedetto said the lawsuit will also assert that the use of emergency certification, which allows a bill to be sent directly to the House or Senate without any committee referrals or public hearings, was "absolutely uncalled for."

"There was no emergency," he said. "It kept (the) public out of it."

The lawsuit will further allege that many of the legislators who voted on the bill only received it the night before or the morning of the vote, meaning most did not even read the bill much less digest its contents, Benedetto said.

When Malloy signed the bill into law on April 4, the governor said it was his hope that the legislation passed in Connecticut would inspire those in Washington to enact similar reform.

"In some sense, I hope this is an example to the rest of the nation," Malloy said. "Certainly to our leaders in Washington, who seem so deeply divided on an issue like universal background checks, when the country is not divided itself."

The governor said 90 percent of Americans support the universal background check stipulation in the new law. But Benedetto said that figure is "absolutely untrue." He said existing background checks keep guns out of the hands of criminals and that the new law targets the wrong people, such as a father who wants to transfer a gun to his son.

Avon lawyer Martha Dean, a former Republican candidate for attorney general, is handling the case, Benedetto said.

Dean reportedly received honors from the National Rifle Association last October. In January, both Republicans and Democrats reportedly criticized her following a video post on her Facebook page about the Newtown shooting.

Benedetto said most of the money being raised for the case is coming from private donations and not any "big gun lobby." He expects the case to reach the Supreme Court and possibly take years to finish. And his preferred outcome: "To find that this law is unjust, unconstitutional and have it all voided."

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