Gun Laws & Legislation

Conn. Governor Malloy And His Gun Politics

Guns and Gear Contributor
Font Size:

By Larry Keane, National Shooting Sports Foundation

I guess that Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy must have missed us.

And by “missed us”, I mean he missed making up stuff about us or either pretending he doesn’t know much about the firearms industry that has such a significant presence in his state or is so uneducated about federal and state law that it should be embarrassing.

Mind you, this is the Governor that attacked the firearms industry in 2013 rhetorically asking and answering his own loaded question with CNN’s Candy Crowley, “What this is about is the ability of the gun industry to sell as many guns to as many people as possible – even if they are deranged, even if they are mentally ill, even if they have a criminal background,” Malloy said. “They don’t care. They want to sell guns.” We asked for an apology. Connecticut-based O.F. Mossberg asked for an apology on behalf of its state workforce. We’re still waiting.

Malloy picked up the old theme in a superficially more reasonable sounding way on June 2 at an evening roundtable discussion of an interfaith group asking “For a generation, we’ve been hearing that it’s not guns that kill people, it’s people that kill people,” Malloy said. “If that’s the case, then the gun industry has an obligation to tell us what they’re doing to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them.”

The Governor’s staff announced the meeting a few hours before it occurred and there was much discussion there about questions that should be asked of the industry. We were not invited despite being the subject of such great interest. Of course, we would be more than happy to answer the Governor’s questions at any time, but our repeated attempts to meet even with the Governor’s top public safety official have gone unanswered. Our April 15 request was the latest.

As for the Governor, as we said with purposeful understatement on that roundtable meeting day after we were informed by four different state house reporters of said pending event, “We rather suspect that the Governor sees a political advantage in publicly sparring with the firearms industry, rather than really bringing us into a conversation.” Read our statement .

Even if we are someday granted a meeting, we likely wouldn’t change our statement. Malloy clearly sees a firearms industry straw man as politically expeditious in appealing to his base in an election year. What we’re happy to report is that the state press corps seems to have figured this out, the Governor’s meeting and remarks not generating nearly as much media coverage as we’re sure he hoped for. In the stories by the veteran political reporters, we were given our due.

This transparent political ploy also appeared to motivate one of the reporters to check in on Stag Arms, to see how that Connecticut Modern Sporting Rifle manufacturer was faring under the restrictive Connecticut anti-gun regime. He took the opportunity to point out that the Governor was visiting a nearby company, but had no intention of stopping in at Stag Arms.

Here’s the bottom line. The firearms industry already does most of what the governor says he wants to learn more about. What we will not do, however, is be put into play for his political purposes. And we will, to borrow a phrase from the liberal playbook, speak truth to power. We’re happy to do that across a conference room table, or as the Governor seems to prefer, in the media.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel