Governor Dannel Malloy says he wants bipartisan agreement on a plan to ban the sale of the kinds of weapons used in the Newtown shooting last December. But as WNPR's Jeff Cohen reports, the governor says that if he doesn't have Republican support, there's more than enough Democrat leverage to push a plan through.
Malloy was speaking to a friendly crowd at the Center for American Progress Action Fund in Washington, DC. And as legislators from both parties still try to come to an agreement on ways to strengthen the state's gun laws, the governor kept the pressure on. "People would like to do this on a bipartisan basis. They'd like to have Republican support for a lot of these things. I think Republicans are unlikely to support a magazine limitation."
He's speaking about a limitation on the size of the storage unit in a gun that holds bullets. He wants to ban the sale of magazines with more than 10 rounds; he also wants to ban the kinds of rifle used in Newtown.
"I think there's more than enough Democratic support. My hope is that we could do this on a bipartisan basis, but if we can't do it on bipartisan basis, that we should get it done." Legislators and the governor have all expressed interest in deliberate haste -- not acting too quickly, but acting quickly enough. Malloy has already grown impatient with legislators -- that was clear back when he issued his own set of gun proposals. Now, though, he seems to be giving them some leeway.
"I'm anxious to see the legislature do it. But doing it right is more important than doing it quickly, so if I have to wait until the first week of June to get a good package, then that's okay, too." Asked whether he was concerned about losing gun manufacturing jobs by banning certain weapons, Malloy said he valued public safety first.
