Member Alert

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Upcoming Hearings
Newtown Task Force Hearing Schedule
Hearings are scheduled for the following dates: 

School Safety Working Group Public Hearing
Friday, January 25th, 2013
Legislative Office Building
9:30am, Room 2C
Gun Violence Prevention Working Group Public Hearing
Monday, January 28th, 2013
Legislative Office Building
10:00am, Room 2C
Mental Health Working Group Public Hearing
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013
Legislative Office Building
10:00am, Room 2C
Full Bi-Partisan Task Force Public Hearing
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013
Newtown High School
6:00pm 

Important Note:  These hearings are not bill specific. These are the “hearings before the hearings”… We do not have specific agenda items for  each of these hearings. We suggest when preparing testimony that we do the following:

1) School safety hearing-  What to focus on: How children and even faculty are defenseless, and that the majority of these mass casualty crimes occur in “gun free zones”. Consideration for police, armed guards or even the possibility of staff carrying a firearm should be considered before banning guns and restricting  the rights of law abiding people.*  
2) Gun Violence Hearing- What to focus on: the actions recommended from this hearing, may have some bearing later, on which of the gun bills become raised by a committee.  We need to be able to address broad topics that are included in the bills that have been introduced (see bills below).
3) Mental Health Hearing-  What to focus on: the lack of treatment for individuals with mental health issues, lack of medications, follow up on whether or not patients are consistently staying on medications, question whether or not there are studies on the long term effects of these medications and how patients react after extended usage.*     
4) Full Bipartisan Task Force Hearing - We are not sure if we will have much of an opportunity to testify at this hearing.  Based on the time, and the particular venue, this may be a symbolic public display considering the location.  We do suggest preparing testimony for this particular hearing in “broad terms” that cover the scope of each task force committee.
*If you have specific knowledge or first hand experience with Mental Health issues or school security matters, we are asking that you attend these hearings in particular. The leadership of CCDL may find it difficult to attend all four of these hearings, as they are all scheduled on consecutive work days. We are coordinating with each other to ensure maximum coverage.We should all try to communicate with each other so that we spread out coverage for each hearing. The Gun Violence Hearing is the most important one, but we also should focus on mental health and school security as well. Active CCDL members are often communicating with each other on our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/groups/63321754119/  

Tips:
If this will be your first time testifying before a committee, we welcome you, and look forward to seeing you there. Please join us!

Please contact Gun Violence task force members and ask any questions pertinent to these bills.  

Gun Task force Members: 
  • Sen. Martin Looney, Co-chair 860-240-8600
  • Rep. Craig Miner, Co-chair 860-240-8700
  • Rep. Gerald Fox III 860-240-8500
  • Rep. Stephen Dargan 860-240-8500
  • Rep. Bob Godfrey 860-240-8500
  • Rep. Toni Walker 860-240-8500
  • Rep. Rosa Rebimbas 860-240-8700
  • Rep. Janice Giegler 860-240-8700
  • Rep. Dan Carter 860-240-8700
  • Sen. Eric Coleman 860-240-8600
  • Sen. John Fonfara 860-240-8600
  • Sen. Joan Hartley 860-240-8600
  • Sen. John Kissel 860-240-8800
  • Sen. Scott Frantz 860-240-8800
  • Sen. Tony Guglielmo 860-240-8800
  • Sen. Kevin Witkos 860-240-8800

Guns Across America Rally
Saturday was an amazing day in Hartford, with a huge turnout for the Rally. Reports on other rallies were equally fantastic. The crowd in Hartford was estimated to be around one thousand, but many feel that this estimate was short of the actual attendance. Special thanks again to Dave Ouimette for his efforts to coordinate this rally in very short order.  Pics/video available here.

Legislative Session Under Way!

Numerous gun control bills have been introduced within the first few days of the session. All current gun bills are listed on our homepage.
 
HB-5112 AN ACT CONCERNING THE DISCLOSURE OF THE NAMES AND ADDRESSES OF PERSONS HOLDING HANDGUN PERMITS. Official Position: Oppose
 
HB-5165 AN ACT CONCERNING THE DEFENSE OF A PERSON’S HOME, MOTOR VEHICLE OR BUSINESS. Official position: Support
 
HB-5176 AN ACT CONCERNING THE APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR A TEMPORARY STATE PERMIT TO CARRY A PISTOL OR REVOLVER. Official position: Support
 
HB-5179 AN ACT CONCERNING ACCESS TO THE INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONSE SYSTEM OF THE SPECIAL LICENSING AND FIREARMS UNIT OF THE DIVISION OF STATE POLICE. Official position: Support
 
HB-5268 AN ACT REQUIRING THE MAINTENANCE OF LIABILITY INSURANCE BY FIREARM OWNERS AND ESTABLISHING A SALES TAX ON AMMUNITION. Official position Oppose
 
HB-5269 AN ACT INCREASING THE PENALTY FOR CRIMINAL USE OF A FIREARM OR ELECTRONIC DEFENSE WEAPON. Official position: Support
 
SB-1 AN ACT CONCERNING THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN, FAMILIES AND OTHER INDIVIDUALS FROM VIOLENCE. Official position: Oppose
 
SB-21 AN ACT AUTHORIZING BONDS OF THE STATE FOR AN ETERNAL LIGHT IN MEMORY OF VICTIMS OF GUN VIOLENCE. Official position: Oppose- amendment for all victims of violence not just firearms. 
 
SB-42 AN ACT CONCERNING THE CRIMINAL POSSESSION OF AMMUNITION. Official position: Oppose
 
SB-122 AN ACT CONCERNING RESTRICTIONS ON GUN USE. Official position: Oppose
 
SB-124 AN ACT BANNING LARGE CAPACITY AMMUNITION MAGAZINES. Official position: Oppose
 
SB-140 AN ACT CONCERNING LIABILITY INSURANCE FOR FIREARM OWNERS AND SALES TAX ON AMMUNITION. Official position: Oppose
S.B. No. 161 SEN. BYE, 5th DIST.; REP. GODFREY, 110th DIST. ‘AN ACT CONCERNING THE REDUCTION OF GUN VIOLENCE’, to reduce gun violence and limit the availability of especially dangerous firearms.
REF. JUDICIARY Official position: Oppose
 
Use the below links to call and email your legislators today. Take time and include your position on every bill. It is up to us to make a difference, and every individual effort matters.  
 

Legislative Links

Links for State Reps and State Senators:

 
Links for U.S. Reps:
 
Links for U.S. Senate Members:
(Senate Elect Chris Murphy will be sworn in January 2nd) His email address will be posted after this date.  
 
 
Please be polite and courteous when communicating with legislators.   
 
It is the official position of CCDL to oppose any new gun control measures including bans on magazines, or certain types of semi-automatic firearms. Whenever gun owners surrender to compromise, the next argument is created for anti-gun forces that somehow the guns, or certain types of guns are the problem. We ask that all gun owners stick together, and ignore tactics that are employed to divide us by firearm preference. One day they may come for revolvers and double barrel shotguns!

Next Meeting February  12th, 7pm – 9pm
Don’t forget to join us in Middletown for our next monthly meeting. This meeting is open to all Members! Also, we will be collecting canned goods/non-perishables at our meetings. 

The Connecticut Citizens Defense League strives for hands on activism from our members. We want an organization for us all to be proud of as we put forth effort to fight for our 2nd Amendment rights in our beautiful State. See you there!
Location : Middletown Elks Lodge 771, 44 Maynard St
View Map or Get Driving DirectionsCarry On!
CCDL, Inc.
www.ccdl.us

Our mailing address is:

P.O. Box 642

Groton, CT 06340

Copyright (C) 2013 Connecticut Citizens Defense League, Inc. All rights reserved.

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