Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) said that the attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was carried out with an assault weapon despite the state’s “aggressive” gun laws, during an interview that aired on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. Malloy argued that manufacturers could potentially get around state assault weapon laws because of an absence of federal legislation.
“Connecticut has a pretty aggressive law — probably of the 50 states I think we’re ranked 4th most aggressive in trying to limit access to these kinds of weapons,” Malloy said. “But what happens in the absence of a Brady bill, in the absence of federal legislation, people use descriptive terms to try to get around the limitations that are built into our statutes here in Connecticut, or might otherwise not happen if we had federal legislation on this issue. These are assault weapons. You don’t hunt deer with these things.”
