Our DESPP had some legislators and other gov't officials up at the shooting range to teach them what guns do what ... they had them sign waivers (in case of injury--boilerplate stuff I imagine) ~ I FOIAed those waivers ~ they refused to provide them to me although they are public records and available under our FOIA Act....pending appeal now. Maybe idiot Lawlor was one -- I did a FOIA with Lawlor before regarding one goofy statement he made -- he refused.
Looks like my FOIA requests have pissed certain people off ....
The OP is correct however; since it was a stolen gun, the guy can not be required to register it or its mag.
OP is nowhere near correct.
The 5th is not a shelter for wrongdoers...the requirement to declare the LCM is there and it was violated or the law was violated by the transfer of the LCM after the effective date of the new law. He can't plead the 5th and nullify a statutory requirement simply because he failed to comply with the law...he'll just be found guilty for failing to comply. There is no requirement to register handguns in CT (i.e. new residents don't have to register when they move here) although State/Fed laws cover the
transfer of handguns. There was no lawful transfer, so those laws are violated by the theft and therefore he may be punished.
Statute required LCM declaration prior to Jan 1 and prohibits transfer/sale/etc. of LCMs after the effective date back in April 2013. This is the problem with the statute...there is NO WAY TO TELL IF A GIVEN MAGAZINE HAS BEEN DECLARED because LCMs don't have serial numbers. All they can check is to see whether this guy's name is on a 788C magazine declaration for that LCM make/caliber/capacity...and with tens of thousands of 788Cs waiting to be looked at, there's no way to tell if it is declared or not...in fact...there's no way to tell if ANY LCM is declared or not. It's only possible to tell whether a PERSON has declared an LCM make/caliber/capacity.
The statute purports to create a registry of LCMs...but it's really just a registry of PEOPLE WITH LCMs. In theory, people can transfer LCMs among themselves as long as they have declared the same LCM make/caliber/capacity to DESPP and the state would have no way of proving that the LCM in question is not the one on a given person's declaration. They also couldn't prove that a transfer took place. If an LCM wore out and needed replacement, there's no way to tell whether a declarant illegally obtained an identical LCM since they're all the same (no serial numbers). The statute was written for political purposes, not public safety purposes. It does nothing except increase criminal liability after the fact. These statutes are about increasing the number of felons in order to stamp out ownership...a backdoor way around the 2A.
Keep this in mind if you're ever stopped for OC. Police will now seek to determine whether the magazine you are carrying has been declared and whether it is in fact an LCM. They'll also want to know whether you're over the max number of rounds. These obviously require that they consult with the DESPP database AND search you in order to compare. It is up to you as to whether you wish to waive your 4A rights on this. There has to be probable cause in order to search you, however, RAS allows them to disarm you "for officer safety" and we know the judges in this state consider an armed citizen to be RAS that crime is afoot...so expect to have your weapon examined for compliance...again, another end-run around the Constitution. You're better off doing the old "am i free to go?" routine and terminating the encounter ASAP...in other words...make it into a detention requiring PC BEFORE anything else happens regarding your weapon. Until US v. Black becomes the standard for OC, expect to have things go poorly.
) magazine even if they can't get him for not registering the magazine