Connecticut Gun Bill: How Avon Legislators Voted

This story was written by John Fitts, Ronni Newton and Jessie Sawyer.

Votes from Avon legislators were split on Connecticut's historic gun bill, which Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed into law at noon on Thursday.

While state Rep. Tim LeGeyt (R-17) and state Sen. Kevin Witkos (R-8) both voted against it, state Rep. Brian Becker (D-19) voted in favor of it, according to the Hartford Courant. 

"I thought long and hard about the effect any potential legislation might have. In the Talmud it is said, 'When you save one life, it is as if you saved the entire world.' Accordingly, if the provisions of HB 1160 can save even one life, I think it was incumbent upon us to pass it," Becker wrote in an email to Patch about his decision to support the bill.  

The bill passed the State Senate Wednesday evening, approved by a vote of 26-10. The house version of the bill was passed at 2:26 a.m.

"We know that some children escaped from Sandy Hook Elementary School when the shooter had to reload. If he had to reload more often (because of the magazine limits that are part of the bill), perhaps more children would have survived the attack," Becker said. 

LeGeyt said the mental health and school security segments of SB1160, An Act Concerning Gun Violence Prevention and Children’s Safety, provoked little disagreement, Canton Patch reported.

However, LeGeyt said the gun-control portion did, partially due to its complexity and confusion. 

"As a result, and even though the task force and leadership deliberations were bi-partisan, thereby managing to keep the terms of the bill relating to gun violence from going to the extremes that it otherwise might have if the process was managed in the usual partisan way, I felt that the terms of the bill relating to gun violence still went too far and I voted ‘no’ on this legislation," LeGeyt said in a prepared statement.

Witkos, who served on two of the working groups that focused on school safety and gun violence, offered similar thoughts. He said he received 7,000 emails, most from people who opposed the bill. Still he thought there was a lot of good but felt at least one provision would infringe on Constitutional rights. 

“There are some great parts of the bill, which I believe will help keep guns out of the wrong hands, including felons and the mentally ill. But as I said on the Senate floor, the sum of the parts does not equal the whole of the bill. If you start to prune the roots of the tree of liberty, the tree will suffer a withering demise.”  

According to the Hartford Courant, the final vote was 105 to 44, with two absent. Ninety-eight Democrats were present for the vote, the Courant reported, and 85 of them voted in favor while 13 were opposed. Of the 51 Republicans voting, 20 voted in favor of the bill and 31 were opposed, according to the Courant.

Public safety provisions in the bill include prohibiting the sale of any rifle or pistol magazine with a capacity of more than 10 rounds; expanding the definition of an "assault weapon"; requiring a permit to purchase ammunition; and prohibiting the storage of firearms and ammunition in a manner that allows access by persons under age 18, according to a press release from nearby State Sen. Beth Bye, who represents Farmington and West Hartford. She supported the public safety provisions, West Hartford Patch reported.

“This bill makes Connecticut different, and it and shines a light on how we are different,” Sen. Bye told her colleagues in the Senate chamber, according to a news release from her office.

“Sandy Hook brought us together. Our collective grief, our collective love for the families of the victims, our collective resolve addresses all the facets of this horrible mass murder. And our grief, our love, and our resolve for change does not know party labels,” Bye said in the release.  

For the complete Senate vote as reported by the Courant, click here. The House vote tally according to the Courant can be found here.