Connecticut State Senator Will Haskell (D-Bethel) last weekend took to the airwaves in support of his proposal to limit gun sales in the Constitution State to one per month.
“We know that handguns sold alongside other handguns in a bulk sale, they’re 64 percent more likely to be used in a criminal manner,” he told WCBS News Radio 880. “Most of the hunters in my district tell me that they don’t really purchase more than one gun per month, typically. I hope that they’ll come to the table on a very common-sense restriction that will save lives.”
The senator introduced similar legislation in the winter of 2019, whereupon he said that one-fifth of all handguns found to have been used in crimes in the year 2000 originally were bought along with other guns.
California, Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia are presently the only states that restrict bulk firearm purchases. New York City also has a law to that effect.
According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, prohibiting citizens from buying more than one gun per month can lead to negative outcomes; for example, they could impede threatened individuals from keeping guns in more than one place in the home in case of an intrusion. Economist John Lott, who runs the institute, has noted that murders, robberies and other physical attacks actually rose after states enacted one-gun-per-month statutes.
Progressives’ anti-gun efforts gained some traction in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Haskell and his allies have cited recent mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, as prompts for their renewed calls for gun restrictions.
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Connecticut Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Will Haskell” by State Senator Will Haskell. Background Photo “Gun Shop” by Michael McConville. CC BY 4.0.
