Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced on Dec. 10 that he will sign an executive order blocking anyone on federal government terrorism watch lists from obtaining a gun permit to buy firearms, according to the Hartford Courant.
Malloy said he is working with the White House to gain access to the databases, which include people who are suspected of having connections to terrorist groups. President Barack Obama has called for banning gun sales to those on the federal “no-fly” list, but a similar measure failed to clear Congress recently.
Connecticut, which passed some of the nation’s strictest gun control laws after the 2012 Sandy Hook school shootings, would become the first state to bar those on watch lists from buying guns.
“Like all Americans, I’ve been horrified by the recent terrorist attacks in California and Paris,” the Democrat governor said, according to the Courant. “This should be a wake-up call for all of us. This is a moment to seize here in America, and today I’m here to say in Connecticut, we are seizing this moment.”
The state’s all-Democratic congressional delegation applauded Malloy’s move.
Malloy trumpeted his plan as “basic common sense,” but critics denounced it as a political stunt that does nothing to enhance public safety while encroaching on the constitutional rights of people who have not been convicted of any crime.
The no-fly list is one of several government databases of people suspected of terrorist connections. The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the constitutionality of the no-fly list, arguing in federal court that standards for inclusion in the database are vague, shrouded in secrecy and prone to error.
