Gun Owners and Politics, sadly we must pay attention.

Hi.

Good evening. Sorry, I was out ordering pizza because I haven't eaten anything today yet. So my name is Brooke Cheney. I'm a mom, a wife, a daughter, a sister, and a friend. I'm also a firearms instructor and sponsored competitive shooter. I'm also a pacifist, suicide survivor, and a victim of sexual assault. I know what it is to be a victim. I have met some of the evil in the world. I come here every time with the wish that we could stop talking about Second Amendment rights and more gun control and focus on the issues that would actually save lives, such as suicide prevention. But our time is limited. In my written testimony, you will see that I have included the safe gun handling rules from the NRA and Jeff Cooper's Rules of Firearm Safety. Which my children at 11 and 12 know how to recite, and they are aware of what to do. I am here in opposition of SB 60, 7218, 7219, but I'm here for once to be in support of a bill, and I'm very excited about this. I want to thank you for bringing forth SB number 940, an act authorizing certain persons to carry in state parks and state forests. As a woman and a firearms instructor, I'm also excited to be here in support of this bill. I know many women who love outdoor sports yet feel vulnerable at times out in the middle of nowhere and no help that could be called if needed. I am my own first responder. That is what all of my police officer friends remind me. I also know from my students that you'd be making many women happy if you were to pass this bill. As a parent of small children, When my kids and I are in the woods, I am the protector of my family. It could be anything around me, a sick animal, a person who intends to do harm. When you train with a firearm, it gives you more confidence. One of my favorite things as an instructor that I love is seeing a fearful woman walking into my class, then a confident woman with a permagun walking out, realizing they have control over a firearm. It is not the other way around. This is absolutely a women's rights bill, and I thank you for bringing it forward. For those of you who don't think guns are ever used successfully or regularly for self-defense, I can send you to my website called Save Thousands, Not Just One, because when people say they want to save just one life, I think their bar is way too low. Those of us who train in self-defense know that just training and being aware of what to look for can help deter a crime. We never want to use our gun if we don't need to, but it's nice to know we have the option if needed, but it is always a last resort. As far as an act concerning the regulation of firearms by municipalities, I support and applaud this bill because as a pistol permit safety course instructor, I have seen what challenges people have applying for permits since many towns vary in their application process. Having our gun laws and regulations be uniform across the state just makes sense. And I'm gonna stop there. So, um, thank you again. Oh, look, it's like timing. I almost had a time.

That was perfect. Um, are there comments or questions from members of the committee? Representative Dubitsky.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

There's a reason I always look down that way.

Thank you for coming in. You talked about the bill preempting local regulation of firearms. You have— your students come from various places, and do you travel at all for your training?

I do, actually. One of the things I left out is I am a competitive shooter, so I travel to clubs all over the state, along with all over New England, and actually all over the United States. So I travel on a regular basis.

When you're on the highways, do you always know what town you're in?

No, not at all. And one of the reasons I support this is not even that part, but just I see the difficulties that we already have just in the pistol permitting process because my students come to me and because I'm the instructor, they expect me to know everything that's going on. And like, what do I have to do in my town? I'm like, I can tell you what the state requires, but I can't go beyond that because every town gets to manage how they run their pistol permits. And there are certain towns that ask for just what the state requires, and there are other towns that ask for, like, one of our— I'm from Harwington, and one of our neighboring towns, Winstead, and I think Torrington as well, ask for letters of recommendation, for example. And there's other towns I've heard that actually ask for an interview with the police chief and all that sort of thing. So I just know already, regarding firearms laws, that the pistol permitting process is going confusing enough. And I'm like, go to your town hall and get the application and it outlines everything. But with that, as a person just driving through Connecticut, it's not like I would know ahead of time all the towns, nor would I want to go look up all the regulations.

Now, when you train your— what kind of students do you have?

At a Great Start Shooting School, my primary student— I market mainly towards women. Um, just because being a woman in the firearms industry, um, women do like to be taught by women often. Um, and when I opened the school, I originally thought I was going to teach only women, but I've allowed men who learn— accept learning from a girl that I will teach them too. But primarily it's women, but I do get people from all over the state.

Are any of your students, um, looking for training for protection from abusive situations?

Yes, absolutely. I actually have one former student who— her husband had almost beaten her to death. He had left her in a ditch after beating her with a shovel, and he was sent away to go to jail. And then when he was being released on parole, she knew that his parole hearing was coming up and it was likely that she was— he was going to be able to get out because he didn't kill her, so he didn't have life. So because she survived, she came looking for more training because she knew that he was going to come after her again because he had said so multiple times, that I didn't finish the job the first time, I'm sure I'll finish it the next. So this is definitely why an act authorizing people to carry in state forests makes sense to me, because I do know lots of women who do come to me for self-defense. And one of the things I tell my students also, though, is owning a gun does not make you safer. Having the training and the knowledge of how to safely be aware of how to handle that firearm is what makes you safer. Having the confidence of walking in and not having a clue about how to safely handle a firearm, when you learn how to do that, The amount of confidence it instills, because I still remember that first time that my husband wasn't the one packing my bag. It was— I went up and I knew what to put in my bag, and I'm like, I feel like Wonder Woman, because it gave me that confidence. And as women, because we tend to be looked at as victims often, just the effect of me putting my shoulders back and putting my head up and looking around the room makes me safer and less of a target. So for me, my blessing as a firearms instructor is being able to teach women the confidence. And it's not about the firearm. It's about the confidence and being aware of your surroundings.

The students that you have that are in those situations, how would it— how would they be affected if there were 169 different sets of firearms regulations that if there were— so that would affect them if they were trying to travel around the state?

Well, there's actually a book out called Three Felonies a Day, and it currently talks about the amount of just legislation and laws across America and how none of us sitting here realize that we generally commit three felonies a day because there are just such a large amount of laws on the books, not, you know, irregardless of firearm laws specifically. But as a gun owner, just knowing what the existing laws are is challenging enough. So if we were to have to then figure out what town I'm in and what law, then I don't see how we don't all instantaneously become criminals.

And you— which law do you teach your your clients? Is it state law, or do you try to teach them the individual law of each municipality?

Actually, with the NRA Basic Pistol Course, we do not teach law. It is on the onus of the firearms owner to know what the laws are, both federal and state.

Okay, and how do you think that it would affect Do you think that it would deter victims that you know of and that you've trained from protecting themselves from their abusers if they had to— if there was a separate law in 169 different towns?

Well, I can't talk for my students. What I can say is just the safe storage laws that we have before us today make me nervous. I am a responsible gun owner, but I'm still human. I can still screw up. I can still come home from a competition late at night after traveling across the states, bring my gun bag into the house, lock my doors, and go to bed. Now someone breaks into my home after I've had a long day, they steal my guns, and now I'm a felon. So regardless of every other town, just the safe storage alone makes me concerned because someone broke into my home, stole my firearms that no, I didn't have locked because I made a mistake. And now you're going to take me, a mom of two small children, away from my family because now I'm a felon? This is where I'm losing any— I don't want to say faith, but I'm wondering where the humanity in these laws it really is, because I'm getting punished for being human, and accidents do happen. So I can't talk for my students, but I can talk for one of the things I am concerned about as a gun owner.

Okay.

And, and is it— are you concerned at all about the prob— the possibility of being unintentionally, uh, caught up in a law that you were unaware of in some other town?

Oh, absolutely. I mean, as it is, it's hard enough to keep track of the existing gun laws. And it's sort of like motor vehicle laws. There's tons of motor vehicle laws out there that none of us know, but they're out there. And it's just a matter of enforcement as well.

Well, thank you. Thank you for coming in. I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Representative Fishbein.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good evening, I guess now. Brooke, how are you?

I'm good.

So, you know, I can totally identify with you, with women that come to your pistol permit class and they gain the confidence because like I do a lot of divorces and I call them my butterflies because women come to me as a caterpillar. They're, you know, they're shy and they can't look you in the face. And we go through the process and it's very enriching for me when they gain their confidence. So I can totally identify with that. You were talking about the permitting process though, and different towns, how they have their own rules. And I think— did you— can you give me some examples of those?

So, excuse me, per state statutes, you must go through a background check, you must have fingerprints, and what else? There's one other thing that's state statute.

You have to do the application.

The application, right, your background check, all that good stuff. In different municipalities, they have those bases is where they start, but then they go on to different requests. Like, I got my pistol permit when I was in Winstead, and they also asked for 3 letters of recommendation. And then other people have said that there's— you get your 3 letters of recommendation, and you also need to sit down with the police chief and have an interview. And then one of my students, who unfortunately I can't tell you which town it was, but said that they actually wanted a letter of recommendation from their boss— was another caveat that they needed to bring into the police department in order to apply for their pistol permit.

And then are you aware— because those things are not in the state statute— Right, right. These are just rules created by the police chief, so to speak, in a particular town. What happens when, when somebody doesn't comply with that local rule? They've, they've done the safety course, they've paid the money to the state, they've done the application, they've got the fingerprints, and let's say they're, they're not a prohibited person. What happens to these people with their permits?

Well, for the most part, everyone complies because nobody wants to argue with a police officer. So, and also when you're brand new into the firearms arena and you're applying for your permit for the first time, you don't realize that the only thing that you actually have to do are the state requirements. So when I go to the police department and I get my package that tells me what I need to do, I just follow down what the package says and I do that.

Okay. So you're not aware of anybody who has not complied with that and the ramifications of that?

No, because like I said, nobody wants to argue with a cop.

Okay. So you're aware of towns that have asked for HIPAA authorizations in order to issue a pistol permit? Have you ever heard, heard about that?

I have not heard about that. The getting an interview with the police chief was the most sort of intimidating one that I'd heard that kind of stuck out, and then asking for a letter of reference from your boss. And I believe there's also some that ask for letters of reference from your family or wanting to talk to your whole family and/or your neighbors. So throughout Connecticut, there's already a wide variety of variety regarding getting a pistol permit.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

You're welcome.

Thank you. Are there questions or comments from other members? Seeing none, thank you very much. And, uh, thank you for, uh, we had good conversations, so thank you for that as well.

You're welcome.