Requests for gun permits are on track to double this year in the shattered city of Newtown, Conn., where a mad gunman slaughtered 20 children and 6 educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14.
Nancy Ellis, a 66-year-old grandmother, is one of many who rushed to apply for a permit for fear her constitutional rights are about to be snatched away, the New York Daily News reported.
“The fact that they were reeling in and squeezing more laws made me think, ’You know what? I want my gun permit,’ ” she told the Daily News. “I want to exercise my right.”
According to police, 211 gun permit applications have been filed with the Newtown Police Department so far this year, whereas only 171 were filed in all of 2012.
“People think they are trying to take their guns away from them,” said Danny DiLuca, co-owner of MD Shooting Sports in Monroe, Conn. “They want to have a right to own a gun and protect themselves.”
Michael Capozzielo, who teaches a basic pistol permit course in Newtown, said people were afraid they only had a small window of opportunity to apply for permits.
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“People started thinking, you know what, some crazy person can do that, at the supermarket, anywhere and I won’t have anything to defend myself,” he told the Daily News. “They were also afraid they were going to enact stricter laws.”
Gun control advocates blame the rise in permit applications to gun lovers stocking up before the state passed strict new gun laws in April, the Daily News said.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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