By crackie....back when I was young...........The laws were much more lax back in the mid-90s. Yes, you would tie your horse up to your local gun shop, make your selection, fill out some forms, pay the man, and wait, I think, three weeks for them to do a "background" check. Once you were cleared you returned to the shop, picked up your heater, and then had two chioces: go DIRECTLY HOME, no stopping, and put that pistola into the drawer never to be fired again. You could NOT take it to the range or carry it with you outside the confines of your home. Second choice similar to the first: you drove DIRECTLY to your place of business and parked it there forever.
This scenario comported with the law that allowed homeowners and business owners to have a gun on the property without needing permit.
That law had NEVER BEEN CHANGED...........BUT........another law did change which makes ownership without a permit moot. Now, Connecticut REQUIRES you to have a permit issued by them to buy a pistol, period, end of discussion. Your husband/wife can NOT gift you with one and you can't ask someone else to buy you one, either.
This State LOVES to accuse us gun owners and shooting sports people of exercising "loopholes" to our benefit which we all know is bunk. Here, however, is an excellent example of the State creating their own loophole: " Sure, Mr & Mrs Resident, you can have a gun on your property without having a permit BUT you must have a permit to buy one." The exceptions are few: A permitted gun owner dies leaving the pistols in the home, you move to CT with your handguns and leave them in the house without having a permit is the only way I can see it happening.
Finally, if you happen to have a gun like that living in the drawer, you could have a good friend who has a permit and has a range to shoot at take it and you to that range and shoot it. You, yourself, can not go alone. Again, this is all to create the web to catch those unaware of these nuances. Frustrates me to pieces.