During an April 7 appearance on CNN, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said gun companies “don’t care” who buys their guns. He claimed these companies would sell to the “deranged, even if they are mentally ill, even if they have a criminal background.”
According to Malloy, the bottom line for gun companies is simply that they “sell guns,” period.
These come across as “in your face” comments to gun companies who watched Malloy sign 139 pages of new gun controls into law on April 4. These were laws that gun companies had warned they wouldn’t tolerate–laws that they couldn’t tolerate economically because they ban the in-state sale some of the very products Conn. companies like Colt, Ruger, Stag Arms, and Mossberg make.
In the wake of the new gun bans, “assault weapons” manufacturer PTR has announced it is leaving the state and taking its jobs and revenue with it. The company says Malloy’s new gun requirements are so stringent that every rifle PTR makes would be banned in the state, and every magazine the company makes would require a serial number and registration.
But in Gov. Malloy’s opinion, gun companies are just ruthless outfits that sell guns to anyone at anytime–“they don’t care.”
Maybe the citizens of Conn. will care if PTR is followed out of state by another gun company, and then another, and then another. And soon, the already extant economic downturn, the largest take hike in history–signed by Malloy in 2011–and the loss of 3,000 jobs in the gun industry may wake some people up.