Ahead of Sandy Hook anniversary, Lamont calls for tighter gun control legislation

With the tenth anniversary of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School approaching on Wednesday, Gov. Lamont announced his intention to introduce stricter gun control laws in the upcoming 2023 legislative session.

Lamont’s call for tighter gun control laws comes after a national gun rights organization, the National Association for Gun Rights Inc., filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s ban on assault weapons. The group also asked the judge to block the enforcement of the law while the motion makes its way through the courts.

At the time the lawsuit was filed, Lamont suggested that he might ask the General Assembly to propose further gun control laws that would close the loophole that allowed some gun owners to keep assault-style weapons purchased prior to 2013. In his announcement, Lamont doubled down on that commitment and added that he wants to make it easier for police to confiscate untraceable “ghost guns”, protect residents in sensitive locations, and help stop illegal guns from driving community gun violence.

“I am proud that Connecticut is leading on gun violence prevention, but the fact of the matter is that guns are crossing state borders every single day, and a patchwork of gun safety laws in each individual state is not the solution,” Gov. Lamont said. “As we’ve shown in Connecticut, we can implement laws that respect the rights of Americans to own guns for their own protection and sportsmanship while also acknowledging that firearm companies are manufacturing and selling guns that have the sole purpose of killing the largest number of humans within the shortest amount of time.”

So far, there have been over 600 mass shootings in 2022, resulting in 653 dead and 2618 injured, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. Against the backdrop of the proliferation of mass shootings in the United States, national support for gun rights has waned. In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting, in which six teachers and 20 children were murdered, 49 percent of Americans said controlling gun violence should be a priority. 

However, a June 2022 poll found that six out of 10 Americans now believe controlling gun violence is more important than protecting gun rights. 

“The overwhelming majority of Americans support sensible measures on gun safety, and while we’ve implemented many commonsense reforms in Connecticut, time and again we’ve seen the influence of powerful lobbyists from the NRA blocking these actions in Congress,” Governor Lamont said. “We can do more – both on the state and federal levels – to prevent gun violence.”