The ride home
A woman spent nearly twelve hours testifying at the Connecticut State Capitol on three bills: a handgun sales ban, homeschooling regulations, and vaccine mandates. She argued the gun ban won't reduce crime given 400 million firearms already in circulation, and shared her own experience with bullying and abuse while testifying on homeschooling policy.
Chapters
All right everybody, so wait, I am here. Ta-da! Here I am. I gotta drive with the light on. I don't think you can probably see all that much better even with the light on, but you know, 12 hours later. What has your day been like since I last saw you guys? Well, my day has been entirely in the State Capitol building. Oh no, no, no, not true. I did go out to dinner, a quick drive-through at McDonald's, so not entirely at the State Capitol, but almost entirely. And what does a girl do at the State Capitol all night, all day long? Well, you say hi to people, you encourage people, say thank you for coming out, and then you've got your 3 minutes of telling the folks in the legislative body what you believe and what you would like to see them do. So I had 3 minutes at the gun bill, which is basically outlawing handguns for sale in Connecticut, and it was very interesting how the opposition kept saying, oh, but we're not banning you from owning them, but you can't buy one. And so their logic is very interesting because, like, well, we're just banning the sale of said guns. We're not saying we're banning those guns. And it's just like one of the representatives actually said, she's like, so if I don't have one but I can't buy one, but you're saying that you're not banning them? And they're like, well, yes, exactly. And it's just like, okay, this does not make sense. In any way, shape, or form. So that was one of the interesting things. Um, a shout out to my girl Beth Bacon. Uh, if you're on Facebook side, you can look her up, but I told her she win— she won the day for the, uh, the greatest line of all, which was, it's as if the people writing these bills know nothing about firearms, which unfortunately seems to be the case. The bill that was before us in the gun judiciary today was written by Connecticut Against Gun Violence, and my whole thing is all of us are against violence. If we stop focusing on guns, we might actually be able to get somewhere with actually violence prevention. Uh, I did talk about how that I believe everyone would like to see the same thing, you know, peace on earth. Goodwill to men, that sort of stuff. We just have different ways we think that that should be, uh, happening. For the testimonies I listened to, one of the other things that was interesting to me was that someone who was for the bill that wants to ban all handguns in Connecticut, that, um, he said there was a oh, what was the word? It was like a rash of, or a whole lot of, or something that gives you the impression of really, really big, like lots and lots. And he said from 2018 to present, 2025, that there were 11,000 guns confiscated by the ATF and others across our nation. So we're talking 5, 6, 7, 7-year time period, 11,000 guns. Well, I got certified after him, and I happen to know all of the stats because that's what I kind of do— FBI stats, DOJ stats, violence prevention stats, or just violence stats in general. And the reality of it is that the best guess is there's around 400 million guns in America. Now, to be fair, the actual stat is like 382 million guns, but 4 million is just easier to say than all that. So I like rounding up, that's what we learned in school. So anyway, out of 400 million guns, that 11,000, uh, number that he did over 5 years, I'm just like, that's less than 0.00002% of all firearms that are out there. So it was interesting at the very end of testimony, everybody said— or the, the lead ranking member who was running the actual hearing, they, they bounce between who actually has to run the hearing and whatnot, but he did commend everyone who came out today, and he appreciated the fact that each person's testimony wasn't just sitting there and reading the written testimony that they had submitted, but they— most of us answered questions that had been asked by the representatives prior to when we testified. So, um, if you're really interested, you can always go back to the YouTube channel for Connecticut General Assembly Judiciary Committee, and y'all can look and see what he's talking about. And that is what I have for you for today. That is what 12 hours looked like. Oh no, wait, that's not true. Ha! There's more. Because, you know, that was just the gun side of things. Uh, I did talk to my senator and talked— oh, I didn't actually see my representative, but I talked to other representatives and senators while in the building. And talked to a bunch of kids about, you know, the homeschooling bill, which was the other thing that I testified on. And, oh, it was a lot. By the time I got to homeschooling, now it was 7 o'clock or so. So I've been in the building for almost 11 hours at that point. Definitely tired because it is emotional to be in these buildings when we are fighting for our freedoms. And the people who want to take them away are saying, but it's for your safety and it's for the good of everyone. And it might save just one child when they're not really— they haven't determined what the failings were and they're just going to try something new versus like figuring out what the real problem is. So have that conversation both on the gun bill and the school bill. When I got up to testify for the school bill, it was emotional because I talked about how my school life was going from bullying to sexual abuse, and that just sucks. And it's just, it was very warm, very warmly received from the folks up there that were testifying, that were listening to us. But, um, yeah, so now we're up to like almost 8 o'clock. So now being at the Capitol building for almost 12 hours and realizing that I am like 455 on the list to testify for the vaccine mandates, and they're going to stop listening to people at midnight is when they're going to turn off the the hearing for the vaccines. So I didn't stay because I don't imagine they're going to get to 455 by midnight. Since when I left around 8 o'clock, it was, uh, they were like at 200 maybe, or 155, something like that. So yeah, all right. So unfortunately I didn't time this well because I thought I'd put this on just in time that I'd be hitting a red light to be able to turn this off, but that's not what happened. So unlike this morning, it's nighttime and I cannot see any of your comments. So not ignoring you, but for those of you watching, because I saw a number up there, so I know there's a couple of you out there, uh, feel free to leave comments, um, below. And if you have any question about the Connecticut General Assembly legislative process, by all means leave them and I will do my best to answer the questions. If you're not aware, voting in November is the way to make impact. And even better than that, in like July or August, start talking to the folks that you want to support, that you'd like to see in office. And here's something that someone said to me once that like, no, you're kidding, right? You might be the person who needs to be in office, whatever office is available. Here in Connecticut, our state reps and our state senators are all up for reelection, is sort of why such a large variety of bills came forth just in this one day, because the governor wants to say, see, see, we're still the toughest on gun crime. And the reality of it is, is the bill that they are touting as the governor's bill has little to no effect upon gun crime. Because all of the stuff that they want to outlaw is already outlawed, and there's already federal— federally punishable things for making a regular gun into a machine gun. And so, uh, the governor's bill actually doesn't change anything, and basically the anti-gunners just want to make the gun companies accountable. And making gun companies pay money, suing them, and making them accountable still doesn't actually affect the outcome of violence and criminal behavior. So, you know how when you drive somewhere and you're like all excited, you get all green lights? Uh, just this once, I would be like, okay, I wouldn't mind a red light. But anywho, I think I can find the end key or end button, and, um, I am done for the day. I will see all you lovely people back on Saturday night, 9 PM Eastern, for Mental Health Matters. And who knows, maybe I've managed to catch a couple new viewers. And that is my day, my friends. Thanks for popping in and saying hi, and I will see you later this week.
