Gun Advocates Look to Challenge More Laws Following Supreme Court Ruling

NEWTOWN -- Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that the federal right to bear arms trumps gun bans at the state and local level, firearms industry advocates are eyeing restrictions such as mandatory waiting periods as their next target.

Among those leading the charge is Newtown's National Shooting Sports Foundation, a Mile Hill Road-based trade association for the national firearms industry, which hailed Monday's Supreme Court ruling in the McDonald v. Chicago case, and called for the lifting of mandatory waiting periods and other gun restrictions.

 "Those are restrictions that would not pass constitutional muster," the group's general counsel, Lawrence G. Keane, said. "A new era of civil rights begins today."

The Supreme Court, by a vote of 5-4, on Monday reaffirmed an earlier ruling, District of Columbia v. Heller, protecting an individual's right to own guns, and said that those Second Amendment protection extends to the state and local level.

However, the decision does not give everyone unfettered access to firearms, leaving open to interpretation what gun control laws will be permissible. That opening will likely be the next battleground in the debate, observers said.

Keane said that while the group supports requiring a background check for gun owners, it is eyeing a challenge to mandatory waiting period requirements and bans on allowing anyone younger than 21-years-old from possessing a firearm. Both restrictions are in effect in Connecticut.

"The burden is on the government to show that there is a need for that restriction," he said.

Guns have a long history in Connecticut, including in areas such as New Haven, which was home to Eli Whitney and his gun-manufacturing factory. Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin, made his fortune by coming up with a way to manufacture guns with interchangeable parts. Samuel Colt, another state resident, also invented the automatic revolver.

"Connecticut is the home of the industry," Keane said. "The industry has a long and continues to have a significant presence in the state."

According to the Washington, D.C.-based Violence Policy Center, Connecticut is among the four states with the lowest gun death rates behind Hawaii, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The center, which advocates in favor of gun control, said states with high gun ownership and weak gun laws lead the nation in gun deaths.

Connecticut has relatively low rates of gun ownership, about 16-percent of households, and a per capita gun death rate of 4 per 100,000, according to the center.

The five states with the highest gun death rates are Louisiana, Mississippi, Alaska, Alabama and Nevada, according to the center. Household gun ownership rates for those states are between 32 and 57 percent while the per capita gun death rates are between 16 and 20 per 100,000, according to the center.

The firearms industry disputes the center's finding, saying that a record-number of guns were sold last year, and that has not affected crime rates.

"The number of firearms in civilian hands has never been higher than today," Keane said.