In CT
State police won’t help or give guidance on post Newtown gun laws:
When Stag Arms of New Britain wanted to produce a scaled-down version of a popular AR-15 rifle that was banned last April by Connecticut — part of a broader crackdown that was upheld Thursday by a U.S. District Court judge in Hartford — it ran the specifications by law enforcement.
“Right off the bat, they were helpful,” said Mark Malkowski, the company’s president and owner. “They did look at prototypes. They did this about three times. After that, they said it really wasn’t their responsibility to determine what was legal or not.”
The reluctance of the State Police to put its seal of approval on the Stag 22, a semi-automatic rifle that accepts lower-caliber bullets and fewer rounds of ammunition than its predecessor, is emblematic of an ongoing tension between the firearms industry and law enforcement over weapons development.
State police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance said his agency would hate to sign off on a gun, only to have one of its components render it illegal on a technicality.
“Are we going to be responsible for that?” said Vance
Well, are you responsible when you decide one is illegal and arrest a person for that? Why, yes, yes you are.
February 5th, 2014 at 7:38 pm
“Well, are you responsible when you decide one is illegal and arrest a person for that? Why, yes, yes you are.”
No, they are not.
They arrest when they think they should, then let some assistant states attorney figure it all out. And when the whole prosecution goes bust because the gun was legal, nobody owes you a damn thing for getting run through the wringer and made much more poor to boot.
It’s called “Affirmative Defense”, which sounds nice until you realize that means they can go for broke and that you have to prove the charges are BS. There is no presumption in your favor. And remarkably, even getting AD into law is damn hard in these places.
February 5th, 2014 at 8:04 pm
Oh they’re responsible. They’re just not accountable.
February 5th, 2014 at 10:01 pm
Because the one group where ignorance of the law is a valid excuse are those in law enforcement and criminal justice.
Cops and DA’s get a lot of latitude and forgiveness for being wrong on legal minutia
February 6th, 2014 at 8:22 am
The person to ask is the state’s Attorney General. Their opinion letters are binding on the government.
February 6th, 2014 at 11:46 am
So STAG… pack up your company and move. Maybe they’ll wake up when enough companies leave the state
February 6th, 2014 at 7:31 pm
Firearms manufacturers just need to stop dealing in states that aren’t part of the United (fill in the blank) of America.