The LEGISLATIVE Building

A whole bunch of things. So behind me is a big fancy sculpture. There's the roof of the legislative building. So I spent all day at Hartford Gun Club in a USCC instructor course, and now I am here at the legislative building listening to testimony from people who are supporting the governor's bill and people who are opposing the governor's bill, and then I get to listen to all of the questions that our legislators have. So since I'm going to be the last person to go because I have— because I missed my spot because I was at 71— hi, Crabby! Hi, DJ! Um, I don't know how long I'm gonna be here. I think we're up to 120-something or 123 out of 156, so with any luck it won't be that long, but I'm just loving this because it looks like I've got a really fancy hairpiece. So I feel like I should move a little bit, but that's just me and my photography stuff. All right, so let's see, I was just listening— good morning, good evening. Yeah, it's already evening, huh? Um, saving the best for last. Yeah, that's what I'm gonna try to do. So I get to support a pro-gun bill, which is HB 6817, which has a lot of things going for it. I know, I'm like, wait a second, wait, wait, I think that's better bunny ears, right? Um, because it has a lot of good stuff in it. Uh, one of the things is reciprocity. As a competitive shooter who travels all the time, I would love for Connecticut to actually have some reciprocity somewhere so I didn't have to have New York and Massachusetts and Rhode Island all separate. And then maybe a pistol permit that actually has reciprocity like Florida. I'm not saying have all of those, but I'm saying that's what I would need to leave all of the borders of Connecticut. Another thing that I am supporting in HB 6817 is the fact that we want to be able to carry on state land when we go hiking and state parks and that sort of thing. As women who come to me all the time for instruction and all that fun stuff, It would be really cool. Oh, come here. You can talk to them too. I'll let you talk to them too. All right.

Hold on.

I got to have larger arms. This is Ray Bevis.

Hi, everyone.

What are— what's your actual thing?

I am CCDL's legislative coordinator.

Yeah. So he, he deals with all the headaches here on a regular basis.

Yep.

He's the guy that I reach out to when I don't have the answer to stuff because he has the answer to lots of stuff. So did you testify already?

I already testified. I was number 95-ish out of 166.

Okay. Oh, there's 166?

Yep. Okay.

Um, and I think we had actually 2 or 3 people, um, sign up after, so maybe up to 167 or 168 now.

But as the day goes on, the other thing that happens is there's lots of no-shows because people are like, yeah, forget about that.

Yep, lots of no-shows. Um, we had some amazing testimony given today, so—

Oh, did you love Nikki's?

Nikki's was amazing, very heartfelt. Yeah, unfortunately.

Um, tragic story, horrible story, but I'm so glad that I hooked them up.

Oh, that was you?

That was me.

I figured someone was behind that. I recently just read her book. Yeah, um, I don't know if she recently wrote it, but it recently came across my desk.

Yeah, 2013 I believe is when it was actually released.

Okay, well, if you haven't got a chance to read this book, it's a pretty good book.

All right, so, so DJ, I think you threw the links down there yesterday, so you are welcome to go. My arm is not long enough to get both of us in here. We'll pretend we like each other.

All right, all right, well, good luck.

Thank you.

You're gonna be up soon.

All right, all right, thank you then. All right, oh, that—

that's true, not that soon.

Yeah, okay, I'll have a few moments. All right, all right, see ya. So yeah, so Ray is our, uh, legal coordinator, legislative coordinator for CCDL, as you guys have all heard me talk about. And yes, I think G2/3— I think it's best when I have the bunny ears directly above me. Um, what else are we going to support? Oh, how about a Olympic pistols. Yes, I think people should be allowed to have Olympic pistols. So with all of that, um, I think I'm gonna go because one of the things I love doing is listening to all of the other testimony, listening to the questions that the legislators are asking, so if they don't get an answer, that I will be able to give them an answer. It's okay. You want— you want to come say hi? I'm, I'm living to YouTube. On my A Great Start Shooting School channel. So, you want to introduce yourself?

I'm Representative Howard. I represent the 43rd District. That's Southeast Connecticut, Stonington, North Stonington, and Ledyard. I serve in the Judiciary Committee. I've been here since 9 this morning listening to testimony and engaging, frankly, a lot of testimony on, on the bills we have today.

All right, so I was listening on my drive over here and I did not necessarily see faces, but were you the one who was talking about the ledges, um, the amount of people who have actually been charged for straw purchases. Can you recount that for them?

Yeah, so I pulled an Office of Legislative Research report that shows that of the— I think it was— I had it written down, but I think it was 76 people in the last 9 years have been charged with transferring a firearm to an ineligible person, and 73 of those charges have been nollied or dismissed, which is not prosecuted by the court.

Right. And here in Connecticut, we have a real big problem with having tons of gun laws and very little prosecution.

Yeah, that we have seen that across the board. That's actually in part what the mayor's bill is designed to do is to get a little bit more aggressive about, you know, prosecuting gun crimes. And but we have bills here today that want to turn victims into criminals again. So it's frustrating for sure.

All right. Well, thank you very much. All right. So this is what happens at the Capitol. We get to talk to people for real, some that support, some that oppose. But in general, it's always an educational system. If you're willing to listen and learn, So with that, I'm gonna go back in there and listen and figure out what things I'm gonna spitfire. Um, as far as it goes, like I said, I'll be the dead last person. So if you go to CTN or the cga.ct.gov and go to the networking, you'll be able to find it on the CTN YouTube and all of that. So with that, I think I'm going to close this if I can figure out how, because phone YouTube is not my thing to do. So