imported post
aadvark wrote:
Hartford Police Department should work to make a good impression on neighboring Agencies throughout Hatrford County.
The other Agencies that could well benefit from this are: Bristol and New Britian.
Now, if only Hartford would remove the Illegal Ordinance 26-39, concerning Firearms in Parks, arbiet there is no State-wide Firearms Preemption.
It's judicial preemption per
Dwyer v. Farrell.
Although the statutory pattern evinces a legislative intent to regulate the flow of handgun sales and restrict the right to sell to those establishing the requisite qualifications, it is also clear that the General Assembly anticipated that persons meeting those qualifications, including those living in residential neighborhoods and nondealers, would be permitted to sell at retail a pistol or revolver. The legislature has struck the balance between totally unregulated sales and a complete ban on sales of handguns at retail.
In passing this handgun ordinance, the city has placed two important and substantial restrictions on the sale at retail of handguns which most residents of the city can never overcome: (1) that the seller be a dealer, and (2) that the sale occur on premises located in an area zoned[6] as a business district.[7] By placing these restrictions on the sale of handguns, the ordinance effectively prohibits what the state statutes clearly permit. Nor do the defendants suggest any practical means available to either plaintiff of conforming to the ordinance.
A local ordinance is preempted by a state statute whenever the legislature has demonstrated an intent to occupy the entire field of regulation on the matter; East Haven v. New Haven, 159 Conn. 453, 469, 271 A.2d 110 (1970); or, as here, whenever the local ordinance irreconcilably conflicts with the statute. Shelton v. City of Shelton, 111 Conn. 433, 447, 150 A. 811 (1930). Accord, Times Mirror Co. v. Division of Public Utility Control, 192 Conn. 506, 511, 473 A.2d 768 (1984). The fact that a local ordinance does not expressly conflict with a statute enacted by the General Assembly will not save it when the legislative purpose in enacting the statute is frustrated by the ordinance. Here the New Haven ordinance removes an entire class of persons as potential sellers of handguns at retail. The state permit is rendered an illusory right because a casual seller residing in a non-business zone can have no real hope of ever conforming to the local ordinance. In this respect the local ordinance conflicts with the legislative intent as expressed in the applicable statutes. The city has removed a right that the state permit bestows and thus has exceeded its powers.