Well, without regard to the murder stats, the grieving families, the outraged right, the incensed left.....the financial fallout has begun. The first firearms manufacturer has announced it will leave Connecticut. Undoubtedly more will follow. This state is having major problems retaining a manufacturing base due to restrictive laws and taxes and this may be the final straw. I feel bad for those who will be unemployed due to politicians fighting to get on the media circus train, no matter what the outcome of the legislation or how well intended it was (and you know what they say about good intentions). These lawmakers have lost sight of what the state, nation, and the victims' families, really need and are blindly grasping for a way to be seen as doing the right thing. They may well be doing the families, and the nation, a disservice by not taking the time to objectively look at facts and solutions. They need to view what they're doing as an attempt to change the Amendments of the Constitution, not as enacting separate stand-alone laws. These Amendments are rights, not privileges as in a driver's license. They are unabridgeable, unquantified. Simply, this is not the way to go about bringing an effective solution to gun violence. It hasn't worked even in a state (Illinois) that has a blanket ban on carrying all guns. Connecticut had some of the most stringent laws before these new ones and there were mass muders then, like the East Hartford brewery shooting,etc. As a veteran familiar with the M-16/AR-15 I know magazine quantity restrictions will only slow down a 'shooter' a second or fraction of one, with 10 round units taped back to back. And this particular argument is pointless - one person dead is too many and these fools are debating whether magazine restictions will drop the death toll from 25 to 20. Another absurd provision is allowing police to have more than 10 round capacity magazines while on duty only. This means the officer would have to leave his service weapon in the station when he goes home to avoid committing a felony. Ridiculous. The new legislation hardly scratches the surface on the issue of mental health - and this issue is the issue. About the only thing I find sensible is requiring background checks for purchases at gun shows. If we do it in our respective states, we should do it at that level too. And... if the Feds are going to regulate this by overiding states rights,as they're making it a Constitutional issue, then issue Federal gun permits and do away with all this other crap.
Getting back to the financial issue, it is estimated that the new laws will cost Connecticut about 25 million extra, seeing as they'll have to do some more work. It's just assinine.