Why Conn. Assault Weapon Owners May Now Be Felons

The vast majority of assault weapon owners in Connecticut appear to have totally ignored the state's new law requiring them to register the guns. Police received 47,916 permit applications by the Dec, 31 deadline, reports Dan Haar at the Hartford Courant, which sounds like a lot—until you realize that by some estimates there are many as 350,000 assault weapons in the state. That means that tens of thousands of people have now committed Class D felonies—in some cases, possibly without having realized it.

The state's top criminal justice official says authorities won't aggressively hunt down violators. "A lot of people, they just do not know about this law," says the head of a gun advocacy group. Many are calling on the state to reopen registration with a broader outreach campaign. But that might not bring in everyone; one senator said a constituent had told him that his friends were actively refusing to register. "He made the analog to prohibition. I said, 'You're talking about civil disobedience,' and he said, 'Yes.'" Click for the full story. (More gun control stories.)