Lawmakers in Connecticut have approved a measure that imposes some of the strongest restrictions on gun ownership in the United States.
The bill was approved by the state's House of Representatives early Thursday, hours after it passed in the state Senate. It adds more than 100 firearms to Connecticut's list of banned assault weapons, limits the capacity of ammunition magazines to just 10 rounds, and mandates background checks for all gun sales, including at gun shows. The measure also addresses mental health and school safety issues.
Governor Daniel Malloy is expected to sign the measure into law Thursday.
The new law was drafted in response to last December's massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were killed by a single gunman with an assault-style weapon. The tragedy was the latest in a rash of deadly mass shootings across the U.S. in recent years, reviving a long-simmering national debate on gun control. Two other states, New York and Colorado, have passed strong gun control measures since the Newtown tragedy.
But efforts to pass gun control legislation in the U.S. Congress has run into strong opposition from the National Rifle Association, the powerful gun rights lobbying group. The NRA says such measures infringe on the constitutionally guaranteed right to own guns.
The bill was approved by the state's House of Representatives early Thursday, hours after it passed in the state Senate. It adds more than 100 firearms to Connecticut's list of banned assault weapons, limits the capacity of ammunition magazines to just 10 rounds, and mandates background checks for all gun sales, including at gun shows. The measure also addresses mental health and school safety issues.
Governor Daniel Malloy is expected to sign the measure into law Thursday.
The new law was drafted in response to last December's massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were killed by a single gunman with an assault-style weapon. The tragedy was the latest in a rash of deadly mass shootings across the U.S. in recent years, reviving a long-simmering national debate on gun control. Two other states, New York and Colorado, have passed strong gun control measures since the Newtown tragedy.
But efforts to pass gun control legislation in the U.S. Congress has run into strong opposition from the National Rifle Association, the powerful gun rights lobbying group. The NRA says such measures infringe on the constitutionally guaranteed right to own guns.