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Connecticut is sued over assault weapons ban, Democrats prepare to defend

Connecticut Democrats, Attorney General William Tong, Governor Ned Lamont, Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz, and State Senate President Martin Looney with gun safety advocates as they vow to defend the state's assault weapons ban being challenged in court by a national gun rights group
Ebong Udoma
/
WSHU
Connecticut Democrats, Attorney General William Tong, Governor Ned Lamont, Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz, and State Senate President Martin Looney with gun safety advocates as they vow to defend the state's assault weapons ban being challenged in court by a national gun rights group

A national gun rights group has filed a legal challenge to the state’s assault weapons ban. Connecticut Democrats, including Governor Ned Lamont, have vowed to vigorously defend the law.

The state has one the strictest assault weapons ban laws in the nation.

“Leave our gun safety laws alone. They work,” said Governor Ned Lamont, noting that since the laws were passed in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, there’ve been more mass shootings around the country, but none in Connecticut.

“Connecticut’s gun laws are constitutional. Period. Eminently constitutional and defensible,” said Attorney General William Tong. “How do I know, because they have been challenged before,” he said. 

"The state’s gun safety laws have survived previous legal challenges," said Tong. “They were challenged in a case called Shew versus Malloy. Went to the second circuit United State Court of Appeals. We won there. We are going to win again.”

A group called theNational Association for Gun Rights has filed lawsuits to end assault weapons bans in several states, including Connecticut.

The group argues that law-abiding individuals have a constitutional right to keep and bear arms.