A Connecticut Cop Halts Gun Shows After Newtown

[onehandle]

Source: TMP

Michael Gugliotti, chief of police in Waterbury, Conn., decided to stop issuing gun show permits on the day after the nearby Newtown massacre.

“I was just sitting home, really just thinking about what I need to do as a police chief during this type of crisis to ensure that our citizens are feeling safe and comfortable,” Gugliotti told TPM on Friday.

It happened that the day before, one of his aides had a scheduled meeting with a representative of Westchester Collectors Inc., which wanted to hold a firearm and knife show in Waterbury on Jan. 12 and 13. (According to The American-Republican newspaper, the company planned to hold the show at the convention center of the CoCo Key Water Resort Hotel on East Main Street.) Waterbury, a city of 110,000, is about 20 miles northeast of Newtown.

“Out of respect and honor for those 26 folks that lost their life in Newtown, I made the decision then and there to send the promoter a message that I would not be signing any permit for any gun show until further notice,” Gugliotti said.

Read more: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/01/waterbury_ct_gun_show_permits.php?ref=fpb

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Shut Down All Gun Shows! They are breeding grounds for domestic terrorism.

[Little Star]

1. Amen!

[duhneece]

5. Amen to your Amen nt

[Kingofalldems]

2. Look out, here they come...

[mikeysnot]

3. Drip, drip drip

slowly but surely we are going to change the discussion of guns in this nation.

[mbperrin]

4. Thanks, Chief!

Badly needed step. Now the rest of them need to follow suit.

[samsingh]

6. thank you

[cosmicone]

7. Good for the chief! n/t

[Chorophyll]

8. K&R for reasonableness.

[jody]

9. Ninth District in Nordyke v. King deal with gun shows. If a suit is brought in

this incident and the chief's authority upheld it could end up in SCOTUS because that might conflict with the Nordyke v. King decision by the Ninth.

See http://michellawyers.com/nordyke-v-king/

[onehandle]

11. Take it back to the gungeon. nt

[jody]

14. Do you want readers to remain ignorant because OP only told one side?

My post informed readers of a related case that may influence the incident cited in the OP

[NickB79]

40. Yeah, heaven forbid we learn about laws and shit

And the Supreme Court rulings our entire system of checks and balances is dependent upon

[Hoyt]

27. Only use for a gun show is to show your young children what domestic terrorists look like.

[calimary]

10. And let's CONTINUE to call this disaster what it is: Domestic Terrorism!

This is a GREAT statement, onehandle, and deserves to be on bumper stickers, posters, flyers, and protest signs EVERYWHERE, if not also in the headlines.

"Shut Down All Gun Shows! They are breeding grounds for domestic terrorism."

[jody]

18. Wouldn't "Domestic Terrorism" bring it under the Patriot Act and citizens candidates for a

presidents assassination list with domestic drones and Hellfire missiles?

Are you ready to accept the collateral damage from those policies?

[daleanime]

21. If that doesn't show you that those policies, "Patriot" Act etc...,

are wrong, I don't know what will.

[bongbong]

31. Let the Delicate Flowers defend themselves!

After all, they've said they need their popguns to overthrow the gov't, so what's wrong with doing a practice session on the drones & missiles?

[hack89]

12. Connecticut closed the "gun show loophole" several years ago

they are one of seven states that require background checks on all purchases at gun shows.

While I understand the emotions, this was not done in the name of public safety.

[jody]

15. hack89 please clarify what area around a "gun show" is defined by CT as requiring NICS

check?

Or does the CT law apply to all private sales in the state?

[hack89]

17. That is the irony of this act.

in CT you do not need a background check for the private sale of a rifle except at a gun show.

http://smartgunlaws.org/private-sales-policy-summary/
http://smartgunlaws.org/gun-shows-policy-summary/

[jody]

19. Thanks, CT law is comprehensive for all handgun transfers. Private long-gun sales only at gun-shows.

Since rifles and shotguns are used in less than 6% of murders and handguns in nearly 50%, looks like CT law is about as draconian as we can expect Congress to pass as a compromise.

44% of murders are committed by people who know each other.

Murder Circumstances by Relationship, 2010, Total 12,996

- Of which 5,657 (43.5%) by Husband, Wife, Mother, Father, Son, Daughter, Brother, Sister, Other family, Acquaintance, Friend, Boyfriend, Girlfriend, Neighbor, Employee, Employer, Stranger, Unknown; Employer

- Of which 7,339 (56.5%) by Stranger, Unknown

Source FBI UCR http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/ucr

Seems to me the first group (43.5%) may be amenable to one type solution and the second group (56.5%) another.

[mikeysnot]

29. So we should do nothing... right?

ladi-dee ladi-dah....

We don't have gun problems in this nation.

[George II]

13. The same promoter that was going to hold the gun show in Waterbury...

....is going ahead with one in Stamford this weekend (as of this morning) There's a huge hue and cry about it, hopefully something will happen later today to get it cancelled.

If the country can't do anything about this, at least maybe the individual municipalities can do away with these things.

[Recursion]

16. Awful idea. CT requires background checks for private sales at gun shows but not yard sales

I don't think removing an opportunity for a private seller to sell with a background check is a good idea.

[slackmaster]

20. In the case of Connecticut, this move is purely symbolic and will not stop a single unlawful sale

As others have noted, Connecticut's laws on firearm transfers are similar to California's. There are no sales at gun shows that do not include a background check on the buyer.

But it's nice to feel good, I suppose.

[Plaid Adder]

36. Presumably the goal is fewer guns sold, not more background checks. n/t

[SunSeeker]

22. I once tagged along with a friend to a big gun show here in CA.

It also featured a big chili cook-off (which is what enticed us to come). I imagine they are the same everywhere. It's like a Star Trek convention for gun nuts, except the fantasy they are all living out is a crazy bang bang shoot 'em up Rambo scenario that they want to live out in real life. You can buy pretty much anything that shoots there (all I bought was chili), and if what you want is not sitting on the table in front of you, someone will give you a connection to make that purchase. It's sort of like an unspoken gun nut brotherhood. Everyone sitting behind the table claimed to be a "gun dealer" but they all looked like they lived alone in a cabin in the woods. Beyond creepy. Rachel Maddow once took a camera into a gun show and it was exactly like the one I attended. A whole convention floor full of crazy. Chili cook-offs are a good thing. Gun shows? Not so much.

[bongbong]

33. Chili is dangerous at a Delicate Flower Convention*

If you have a particular type of gastrointestinal reaction to the chili, a Delicate Flower might get offended and blast you to smithereens (if there is a SYG law in effect)

* (Delicate Flower Convention being my term for gun shows, to make sure the super-sensitive Flowers aren't offended by the verbiage)

[SunSeeker]

34. Chili is dangerous, period. But unlike guns, it's worth the risk. nt

[WhoWoodaKnew]

23. He made the right decision.

[Macoy51]

28. Pass a Law Against Gun Shows

I hope the Chief can come up with some good legal reasons for refusing the permit before the lawsuit is filed. It may feel good now, but you really do not want public officials banning legal activities based on their feelings.

What happens when a Red county Sheriff refuses a permit for a otherwise legal activity because of his personal feelings? The proper way to do this would be to pass a law prohibiting gun shows.


Macoy

[PavePusher]

44. First Amendment. Good luck with that. n/t

[jerfro]

24. Wake up-just another knee jerk resolution

Until this country resolves the fact that it continues to resolve issues with violence [drones; 60% of our budget is spent in the pentagon; death penalty; police brutality, etc.] stopping a gun show is purely symbolic.

[WhoWoodaKnew]

26. Yeah, I agree with that. But if you're sitting in his seat...

at the moment, under the current laws, what would you do?

[Ashgrey77]

38. Um, you know, follow the freaking law. n/t

[WhoWoodaKnew]

42. I was just saying that the guy had a horrible thing...

happen in his area. I would think that most of us would have some empathy for the victims and the community and cancel some events that have people heated up.

[Jennicut]

30. It was a gesture to the families in Newtown.

Waterbury also doesn't really need a gun show at any time. I've been there enough to know, my husband works in Waterbury.

[Ashgrey77]

39. So you alone get to speak for 110,000 people?

You know better then they do what should be done in their own town? How would you feel if someone from another town over started telling YOU how to live?

[supercats]

25. Thank You Chief

Finally a sensible position taken by someone in charge! I still can't believe more people in power haven't come to similar conclusions.

[wordpix]

32. good, thank you Chief Gugliotti. More chiefs should do the same.

Let the gun show organizers sue and see how that turns out. F--k them

[hack89]

41. So people sell their assault weapons at yard sales or on the internet

where there are no background checks instead of at gun shows where background checks are required by CT law. And this is an improvement how?

CT is one of 7 states that closed the "gun show loophole".

[Paladin]

35. I Wonder How Many Death Threats Chief Gugliotti Has Received, So Far. (nt)

[ReRe]

37. Halleujah!!!!!

K&R!

Finally!..... a R-E-A-L man, with real guts and courage. A hero that stands up. A voice of one. With that brave action, Chief of Police Michael Gugliotti emitted a proverbial "shot" heard all over his state, neighboring states, and now the whole country! I applaud this man and hope that other Chiefs of Police all over this country, or other city officials who issues these gun show permits, follow suit. The madness has to stop through however many different actions it takes. Federal, State and local governments, local community action groups. The time is now. No more excuses. Get the NRA lobby out Congress, for God's sake! Get. It. Out. Don't ban it, just get it out of Congress! Of course, Boehner and the Teabaggers won't let it come to a vote, so the only way this can be done is to regain the majority in the House in 2014 and get it done!

Oh, and NRA trolls: I will not respond to you. Any discussion with you guys (who CALL yourselves Democrats) is OVER.

[PavePusher]

43. Ah yes, rape the First AND Second Amendments at the same time. How very... Rethuglican... of him.

[Tx4obama]

45. Kick! n/t