Sweeping gun limits signed into law in Conn.

Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who four months ago broke the news to shocked parents that their children had been slaughtered in a Connecticut elementary school, signed into law Thursday sweeping new restrictions on weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines similar to the ones used by the man who gunned down 20 children and six educators in the massacre.

Alongside family members of some of the victims of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Malloy signed the bill hours after the General Assembly approved the measure to give the state some of the toughest gun laws in the country.

“This is a profoundly emotional day for everyone in this room,” the governor said. “We have come together in a way that few places in the nation have demonstrated the ability to do.”

In the hours after the shooting Dec. 14, as anxious family members gathered inside a firehouse and waited for news, Malloy told them their loved ones were not coming home. He said later that he didn’t think it was right for the families to wait for the victims to be formally identified.

Now, Connecticut joins states including California, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts in having the country’s strongest gun-control laws, said Brian Malte, director of mobilization for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington.

“This would put Connecticut right at the top or near the top of the states with the strongest gun laws,” Malte said.

Elsewhere, Maryland’s already-strong gun laws will become among the strictest in the nation with a measure passed by the General Assembly on Thursday, sending the bill to the Democratic governor.

The state Senate voted 28-19 for final passage, agreeing to a number of changes the House of Delegates approved Wednesday.