By Ebong Udoma
HARTFORD, Conn., April 1 (Reuters) – Legislative leaders in
Connecticut, where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at
an elememtary school in December, said on Monday they had agreed
some of the toughest gun regulations in the nation and expected
to adopt them this week.
The proposal, which is expected to pass both
Democratic-controlled houses of the state legislature this week
and become law, includes a ban on sales of high-capacity
ammunition magazines, background checks for private gun sales
and a registry for existing magazines that carry 10 or more
bullets.
High-capacity magazines holding 30 bullets each were used in
the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown,
Connecticut, in December.
The proposed legislation creates a state-issued eligibility
certificate for the purchase of any rifle, shotgun or
ammunition. A buyer would need to be fingerprinted, take a
firearms training course and undergo a background check to
qualify.
The proposals were presented to rank-and-file legislative
members on Monday after several weeks of negotiations among
legislative leaders.
Announcing the plan at a news conference at the state
capitol on Monday evening, state Senate President Donald
Williams, a Democrat representing Brooklyn, Connecticut, said
the deal went beyond what any other state had done in banning
high-capacity magazines.
The measure not only bans the sale of high-capacity
magazines from Jan. 1, 2014, but such magazines that exist now
must be registered with the state by that date, or it will
become a felony to own them.
Senate Minority leader John McKinney, a Republican whose
district includes Newtown, said that after the school shootings
both Republican and Democratic state lawmakers decided the issue
had risen above partisan politics.
“The deal is the most comprehensive package in the country
because of its breadth,” he said. “I think it’s a package that a
majority of people in Connecticut will be proud (of) when we
vote on Wednesday.”
Legislative leaders have agreed to bring the measure to a
vote on Wednesday.
Governor Dannel Malloy, also a Democrat, has pushed for
passage of the bill and is expected to sign it into law.
(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing David Brunnstrom)
