Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
The Epic Gun Control Testimony You've Been Waiting For: 'The Constitution Did Not Guarantee Public Safety, It Guaranteed Liberty'
How do Connecticut residents feel about the crackdown on the Second Amendment? Well, there are people from both sides making passionate arguments on the issue, however, one gentleman last week was able to make a particularly persuasive case against more gun control and in favor of the U.S. Constitution.
Meet Robert Steed, a resident of Vernon, Conn. who took three days straight off work to attend several gun control hearings in Connecticut. On March 14, Steed was more "aggravated" than usual with lawmakers and he let them know it in his fiery testimony, telling them that they were "coloring outside the lines of constitutional parameters."
"This is the third day I've taken off of work to come here to, like so many of the rest of us, to plead with you for us to keep our guns because of some wing-nut in Newtown, Connecticut," he said. "If that isn't inherently wrong, I don't know what is. That these bills are even in proposed form is scary enough. That any of you could possibly be undecided is scary enough. What are you looking at?"
He went on: "I can't for the life of me understand how this state can have as many gun laws on the books as it does and have members of its Legislature need to take firearms 101. And as far as what I felt were potshots taken at the NRA, they've done more for gun safety- they'll do more for gun safety this weekend than this committee will do in your careers."
Connecticut will be the next state set to tackle new gun control measures is Connecticut, the same state where the tragic Newtown massacre occurred. On Tuesday, a key committee of the state's General Assembly unanimously approved expanding criminal background checks . On Wednesday, lawmakers were set to discuss expanding the state's current ban on so-called "assault weapons" to include even more firearms as well as additional magazine limits and universal background checks.
Last week, Steed told lawmakers who believe legislation will prevent tragedies that "evil exists" and "sometimes things are beyond your control."
"Adam Lanza commits a crime, and I'm here to gr0vel and plead for my rights and explain to you that my firearms are kept safely?" he asked rhetorically. "I keep hearing the word "solution"... you're not going to find a solution, it doesn't exist. You can't find a broad brush solution to evil."
Connecticut state Rep. Steve Mikutel (D) refuted Steed and said lawmakers can craft a solution to gun violence. "We can solve this," he said.
Mikutel admitted that "we live in an open free democratic society," therefore lawmakers won't be able to address all violence in society. If the U.S. was a "dictatorship" Congress would have a better chance of dealing with violence, but that's not the way they want to go, the Democrat added.
"You'll get a better handle on it maybe in a dictatorship where they just go in and take all your guns and lock-down, and they've got big brother watching all over you everywhere, they've got cameras on every corner, cameras in every neighborhood," the Democrat continued.
"Well, we have some of that going on right now," Steed interrupted.
Mikutel explained that Connecticut doesn't want to go down that route and so it makes lawmakers' job more "difficult."
"The reason that your jobs are becoming so difficult is because you're coloring outside the lines of constitutional parameters," Steed shot back. "That's the bottom line. You are trying to marriage up public safety with constitutional rights. The Constitution did not guarantee public safety, it guaranteed liberty. And sometimes what comes with liberty is tragedy, unfortunately."