At his town hall meeting last week, State Senator L.
Scott Frantz told a large gathering of constituents that he could not reveal
his position on common sense gun regulations.
He claimed the General Assembly’s Gun Violence Prevention working group
on which he serves was under a self-imposed gag order so that they could reach
a “historic” bipartisan agreement.
After that buildup, it came as a surprise that the
very next day the task force released separate Democratic and Republican
proposals. Although there are areas of
agreement, the Republican proposal is less comprehensive and leaves out key
provisions that would help reduce the death toll from gun violence, including an
expanded definition of assault weapons and limits on the capacity of ammunition
magazines.
More disturbing than Sen. Frantz’s silence is that
he and his Republican colleagues are so out of touch with their
constituents. A Quinnipiac University poll found overwhelming support
for both tighter regulation of assault weapons and limiting magazines to ten
bullets, by margins of more than 2:1. By
an even greater margin, nearly 3:1, voters support handgun registration with
annual renewal.
Sen. Frantz is also out of touch with constitutional
law, judging by his town hall statement that “whatever comes out of
the General Assembly and is signed by the governor will withstand some serious
constitutional challenges.” Apparently
three months studying the issue was not sufficient to make him aware that
Justice Scalia’s District of Columbia v.
Heller opinion states “like most rights,
the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited." Pertaining
to assault weapons bans, the Supreme Court goes on to say "nothing in our
opinion should be taken to cast doubt on...laws imposing conditions and
qualifications on the commercial sale of arms."
Neither does the Second Amendment pose problems for
limiting magazine capacity. The New York Times reported that "Constitutional
lawyers, including many conservatives, generally believe that limiting magazine
size falls well within the boundaries of recent Supreme Court decisions on gun
rights…" Had limits on magazine
capacity been in place, we would likely have seen reduced death tolls at the
Newtown, Tucson and Aurora massacres.
It is time for legislators
to stop affording deference to the constitutional rights of gun owners without
similarly recognizing the "unalienable right"
of all Americans to "life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness" which is enshrined in our Declaration of Independence.
On the positive side, in
correspondence to individual constituents, Sen. Frantz has described himself as
“a person who believes in reasonable gun control.” Now that the cone of silence has been lifted,
it is time for Sen. Frantz and the rest of the Greenwich state delegation to
demonstrate leadership and actively speak out in favor of common sense gun
regulations. With their support, Connecticut has a unique opportunity and the
moral authority to show the country a united, bi-partisan front in the quest to
reduce gun violence.
Let’s show Sen. Frantz and
Reps. Camillo, Floren and Walko that the Quinnipiac poll holds true in
Greenwich. Let’s urge them to support
comprehensive gun regulation (contact information for legislators can be found
at the CT Against Gun Violence website, www.cagv.org).
The death toll climbs every day, the time to act is
now.
Postscript: Sen. Frantz, while introducing multiple amendments to carve out restrictions on tighter regulation of firearms (which all failed), when on to vote for the tough package of gun violence prevention measures passed by the Conn. General Assembly. Thank you Sen. Frantz.
