You should have been with me at the Capitol Wednesday, the pro gun supporters there would have warmed your cockles. One thing I'm thinking about is all the guys I know with silencers for their 22 target pistols. Now "illegal".
We're going to take the battle to court and their voting booth. If they show up at my door looking to take my property well yea, they better bring friends. Every LEO I've talked to is not on board with this no matter what the pols say. Chances are they'll refuse to enforce any confiscation.
I'm kind of lucky because I work in what called a "special police force" for the state. No guns in my jurisdiction so having to choose whether to enforce this piece of crap or not isn't really an issue for me. But I have to say that in a PD of 15 officers it breaks out this way. Four would probably not be too interested in checking whether your mag had more than 10 rds loaded or even check if you declared the mag per the law. They view the law as a major encroachment of our rights and are very pro-gun guys. On the opposite side of the spectrum, there are probably 4 who would gladly arrest you for a violation. The remaining seven may or may not actually consider charging a violator, but I can't say what they would all of the time. And then there are one or two who won't even understand the law enough to realize there is a violation and probably one who will think he has a violation which doesn't exist.
That's probably the same basic breakdown of officers and mindsets in most departments in the state. The lion's share of enforcement of the law will fall to the State Police. They run the state database through their Firearms Unit. It's a small unit and they are already overburdened. I haven't heard anything that says the state is beefing it up. But the troopers who work for that unit are the ones who watch over gun shows, show up at a gun range to see if anyone has one of the banned EBRs and stuff like that. They are also the ones who do the big illegal gun investigations. I think there were maybe 10 of them last I knew.
I'm still reading the law and it is poorly written as are most of the laws I see coming out of Hartford over the last five to eight years or so. It makes it confusing for everyone. I'm sure POST (the CT police officer training council) will be holding all kinds of legal up-date classes for it like they had to do when our genius lawmakers passed other laws like the ones concerning juveniles and the changes in marijuana possession and alcohol. It's sad that they pass a law that requires a special class for attorneys and police so they understand it. Makes a person wonder how a regular everyday citizen is suppose to understand it.
I'm of the mind to follow the Canadian civil disobedience route where folks up there registered all kinds of things. For instance, I'm thinking the nail guns I have that I use for nailing into concrete fits the new assault weapon ban. My roofing nail gun has a magazine with a high capacity and has a pistol grip.
Guess I should register them. Maybe even a DeWalt cordless drill/hammer or two as those have two pistol grips.
I'm hoping if enough people play the GIGO game, the state database becomes worthless like the one in Canada did. Many folks are saying they intend to take a broad interpretation of the law when they attempt to comply. It should be pretty funny and not really all that illegal. After all, things like a concrete nail driver shoots a 22-cal blank and "I was confused and erred on the side of caution thinking you meant it was a weapon. Didn't want to be in violation of the law."
I honestly don't know how many high cap mags I have so I guess I will declare a estimated number- inflated of course. God forbid I stumble across some I stored inadvertently in the attic or garage and hadn't included those in the count. No language in the law requires you produce the number of items you declare upon demand from any authority. In order to not violate the law, I'd suggest you overestimate the number of those. And the law doesn't prohibit you from selling them in another state, so should they ever find cause to raid you, they can't charge you with an illegal sale if your declared number doesn't match with what they find. I'm thinking of declaring something like 500 30-rd AR mags, 200 20 rd AR mags, twenty 100 rd Beta mags, fifty 50 rd Betas, and so forth. About a week after I submit it I'll make a trip for my second home out of CT and leave everything there. Since I'm leaving the state soon anyway, I'll remove any weapon affected by the law out of the state also. Should prove interesting if they have the time to check the database and figure out I didn't register the firearms that use those mags in accordance with the new law. A visit to my house by someone checking on the discrepancy would be entertaining.
Obviously I'd be non-violent but I could have sooo much fun with them. The law applies to items in state. It obviously doesn't apply to something you own outside the boundaries of the state. Word of caution if you play the game though, they will attempt to get you to give them the address where the stuff is. Don't do that because they'll enter it into the database and then share it with other agencies.
Bottom line. I wouldn't want to be a cop assigned to following up on suspected violations of this new law. Nothing good will come of it and there is a high potential of "ugly" that may result from attempting to enforce it. It's really shaping up to be a bad time to be a cop and I'm glad I'm retiring in 17 months. When they pass laws I can't agree with and that I view as a violation of people's rights, I can't honestly say I'll enforce those laws and have to rethink my ethics as opposed to my career field.