David Codrea:Setback in Connecticut ‘only first battle in multi-year legal war’

A federal judge has upheld the State of Connecticut’s sweeping gun control laws enacted last year in response to the Sandy Hook “gun-free zone” shootings, the Associated Press reported Thursday. United States District Court Judge Alfred Covello at Hartford issued a 47-page ruling in the case of Shew v. Malloy admitting “While the act burdens the plaintiffs' Second Amendment rights," but then claiming "it is substantially related to the important governmental interest of public safety and crime control.”

Judge Covello, a George H.W. Bush nominee, reasoned the law should stand because “the legislation here does not amount to a complete prohibition on firearms for self-defense in the home.

“Indeed, the legislation does not prohibit possession of the weapon cited as the ‘quintessential self - defense weapon’ in Heller, i.e., the handgun. In other words, ‘the prohibition of [assault weapons] and large - capacity magazines does not effectively disarm individuals or substantially affect their ability to defend themselves,’” Covello elaborated, leaving the Constitutional mandate “shall not be infringed” unacknowledged.

“Brian Stapleton, the lawyer for a group of Connecticut organizations that support gun rights, pistol permit holders and gun sellers, said he will appeal,” the AP report advised, and another attorney has elaborated on those plans.

“Today's ruling from the U.S. District Court of Connecticut in the 2nd Amendment challenge to Connecticut's new firearms law was expected,” lawyer Martha Dean told her followers on Facebook. “As the legal team for the plaintiffs warned from the outset, the federal courts in this region of the U.S. are generally hostile to 2nd Amendment rights. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals is the next step, but the prospects for a more favorable decision are as bleak there as they were in the lower federal court in Hartford.

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