July 21, 2020 – MOTION IN FEDERAL COURT

The Connecticut Citizens Defense League (CCDL) announced today that it has filed an emergency motion in Federal Court seeking an immediate status conference in its continuing lawsuit against

Governor Lamont and Commissioner Rovella to stop the state’s latest violations of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In Connecticut, in order to purchase a firearm or ammunition, one needs a permit. In order to apply for a permit, an individual needs to have their fingerprints taken by law enforcement. Last year, Governor Lamont issued an executive order which effectively shut down the system of fingerprinting individuals wishing to obtain such a permit, effectively preventing everyone in Connecticut who did not already possess a firearms permit from exercising his or her constitutional right to keep and bear arms. On May 9, 2020, CCDL and others brought suit in Federal Court against the Governor, the Commissioner of the State Police, and others, seeking an order that, if the state is going to require fingerprinting to exercise a constitutional right, the state must immediately resume

fingerprinting.

On June 8, 2020, the Federal Court ordered the Governor to rescind his executive order, and to resume fingerprinting and processing firearm permit applications. The Court ruled that if the state mandates citizens to utilize a given state-imposed procedure in order to exercise the fundamental constitutional right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, the state violates that fundamental right when it prevents individuals from accessing that state-mandated procedure. Under order of the Federal Court, the state restored the system. Now, in open violation of that court order, the state has once again shut down the fingerprinting system in Connecticut.

Even more troubling, Connecticut has also effectively shut down the state’s firearm purchase approval system, making it virtually impossible for most law-abiding citizens of this state, including numerous CCDL members, to purchase a firearm of any type. The system requires an FFL to call the state by telephone and get verbal

authorization to sell a given firearm to a given buyer. Many Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) in Connecticut have long complained about the subjective nature of the system, and that often firearm purchase authorization requests are delayed, denied, or the phone line simply clicks off when the prospective purchaser has an Asian or Hispanic-sounding name. Now, the entire system has collapsed due to a so-called “computer upgrade.” It is virtually impossible to purchase a firearm in Connecticut or for a federally licensed dealer to sell one. Many Connecticut FFLs are forced to employ multiple people to do nothing but dial the telephone, hoping against all hope that during an entire workday, one call might be answered by the state, and that FFL might be able to make a sale. After thousands of calls over the course of an entire day, an FFL may not get through to sell a single firearm!

On July 20, 2021, the CCDL filed an Emergency Motion for Immediate Status Conference with the Court, seeking to stop the state’s most recent and egregious constitutional violations. CCDL believe that only the Federal Courts can stop the State of Connecticut from its renewed, exacerbated and continuing violation of the Second Amendment rights of its members.

Connecticut Citizens Defense League, Inc. is a non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots organization of more than 36,000 members, committed to protecting the unalienable constitutional right of all citizens to keep and bear arms through legislative and grassroots advocacy, education, research, publishing, legal action and programs.