Lawsuit takes aim at Connecticut’s assault weapons ban

Gun rights advocates are seeking to block Connecticut from enforcing a new federal rule that reclassified certain weapons as banned firearms under the state's assault weapons ban.

A lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court by the Second Amendment Foundation on behalf of several gun owners, seeks a declaratory judgement that Connecticut's laws banning the sale or possession of "assault weapons" violate the Second Amendment, and calls for a permanent injunction barring the state from enforcing the laws.

The move comes in response to new federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives rules, published on Jan. 31, that reclassified "certain other firearms" as rifles under federal gun control regulations.

In a complaint, the plaintiffs ask the court to declare the ATF's new rules have "placed the plaintiffs at the likely and extreme risk of being subject to the heavy burden of criminal prosecutions as felons under politically motivated Connecticut law with no prior notice and in violation of their Second Amendment rights.”

"Every day that passes where the plaintiffs cannot purchase, keep, and bear modern sporting firearms places them at a disadvantage to violent criminals who have no regard for the law and who may target them," the lawyers wrote in the 32-page complaint.

Alan M. Gottlieb, the group's executive vice president, said the ATF's new rule redesignating a class of firearms known as 'any other firearm' or simply ‘others’ as either ‘rifles’ or ‘short barreled rifles’ puts those weapons within the state’s definition of an assault weapon.

"This immediately put thousands of owners of previously-classified ‘other’ firearms in harm’s way legally because now their possession is a felony," Gottlieb said.

The request for a temporary injunction is part of broader legal challenges by Second Amendment groups, filed last year, seeking to overturn the state's prohibition on what they call "modern sporting arms," such as AR-15 long rifles.

The lawsuits were filed in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the N.Y. State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen case, which struck down a New York law requiring applicants to show “proper cause” to get a permit to carry a firearm.

Connecticut's assault weapons ban was approved in 2013 in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, when a lone gunman killed 20 children and six educators.

Gov. Ned Lamont, who is named in the lawsuit, wants to tighten the state's gun control laws even more by closing "loopholes" in the state's assault weapons ban.

He has proposed to increase the minimum age to buy a firearm to 21 and prohibit the sale of large-capacity firearm magazines, among other changes expected to be unveiled as part of his budget proposal for the next fiscal year.

But the proposals are already facing pushback from gun rights groups who say the changes would be unconstitutional and won't reduce violent crime.