Punishing the innocent is par for the course when politicians are involved. Even though all but one Connecticut denizen refrained from shooting up the school in Newtown the politicians of that state have decided to punish every resident gun owner:
The Connecticut deal includes a ban on new high-capacity ammunition magazines like the ones used in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 20 children and six educators dead. There are also new registration requirements for existing magazines that carry 10 or more bullets, something of a disappointment for some family members of Newtown victims who wanted an outright ban on the possession of all high-capacity magazines and traveled to the state Capitol on Monday to ask lawmakers for it.
The package also creates what lawmakers said is the nation’s first statewide dangerous weapon offender registry, creates a new “ammunition eligibility certificate,” imposes immediate universal background checks for all firearms sales, and extends the state’s assault weapons ban to 100 new types of firearms and requires that a weapon have only one of several features in order to be banned.
The newly banned weapons could no longer be bought or sold in Connecticut, and those legally owned already would have to be registered with the state, just like the high-capacity magazines.
Most of these restrictions are mirrored by proposed laws we’ve seen either federally or in other individual states. While the politicians and advocates of gun control claim these restrictions are common sense and necessary to prevent the next mass shooting the truth of the matter is much more sinister. What these laws will actually do, as most laws do, is put the law abiding at a severe disadvantage. Gun owners who want to maintain the status of being a lawful individual will be unable to purchase standard capacity magazines or 100 previously legal firearm models and must acquire a certificate just to legally purchase ammunition. On the other hand gun owners willing to ignore the law will now enjoy an advantage since they will still be able to acquire or manufacture standard capacity magazines and the 100 models of firearms that will soon be verboten.