Connecticut’s most wide-ranging gun-control measure since the 2013 law enacted after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting took effect Sunday—and proponents of tighter gun controls are vowing to pursue further gun legislation, despite the legal challenges mounting across the country.
The new law, signed by Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont in June, bans the open carrying of firearms, expands the state’s current assault weapons ban, and prohibits the sale of more than three handguns within 30 days to any one person—with some exceptions for instructors and other qualifying individuals.
“We will not take a break and we cannot stop now, and we will continue to pass life-saving laws until we end gun violence in Connecticut. Our lives depend on it,” said Jeremy Stein, executive director of Connecticut Against Gun Violence.
HB6667, also known as the 2023 Assault Weapons Ban, was immediately challenged in court by gun rights supporters after it passed. Connecticut’s 2013 gun law, passed in response to the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting that claimed 26 lives, is also being contested in court.
Other gun laws passed this year in liberal-leaning states such as California, Washington, Colorado, and Maryland are also facing legal challenges. They come in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision last year to expand gun rights.
About 150 gun rights activists held a rally outside the Connecticut State Capitol on Saturday to mark the last day that carrying a visible firearm would be legal in Connecticut. The protestors say they remain hopeful the law will eventually be overturned in court, arguing that it’s an infringement on their Second Amendment rights and unnecessary.
“It is not common in Connecticut to go to the grocery store and see somebody with an exposed firearm. Does it happen on rare occasions? Sure, but it is not a problem in our state,” Holly Sullivan, president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League (CCDL), told the Waterbury Republican-American.
She said there were sufficient state laws on the books that address issues like people illegally carrying a weapon in public or abusing the open-carry law.
Besides the open-carry ban, the CCDL objects to the classification of a number of modern sporting arms as “assault weapons” under the new law.
“These are not machine guns, they are not automatic weapons,” Ms. Sullivan told NBC. “They’re used in hunting, they’re used in sport,” she said. However, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong told the broadcaster that such guns are “dangerous weapons of war.”
HB 6667 also increases bail and toughens probation and parole for what officials called a narrow group of people with repeated serious gun offenses; stiffens penalties for the possession of large-capacity magazines; expands safe-storage rules to include more settings; and adds some domestic violence crimes to the list of disqualifications for having a gun.
Republican legislative leaders, who represent the minority party in the state General Assembly, accused Democrats of bragging about how safe Connecticut is because of the gun laws when there have been increased rates of carjacking, serious property crimes, and other acts of violence in the state.
House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora called the Democrats’ claims that Connecticut is one of the safest states in America a “slap in the face” to residents.
“Enough with the news conferences—Democrats should step away from the lectern and tap into what’s happening in their districts,” he said in a statement.
State Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, a Democrat from New Haven, called the legislation a “very significant initiative,” but stressed “the battle is not over.”
Mr. Looney said he wants to pursue further limits on monthly gun purchases and require microlabeling or ammunition microstamping to help law enforcement trace bullet casings to specific firearms.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.