That's what my local gun shop here in Mass said but I don't think he's right.

The senate passed the ban, on Thursday night, but it still has to go to the house and then to the governor. I was at the capitol yesterday, and our lobbyist was optimistic that it would never reach the house floor. This bill is a lose/lose situation for all of the reps, no matter how the vote goes. His (the lobbyist's) feeling was that the house doesn't want to risk trying a vote on it.

I will post more when I know more.

Here's the text of my letter to my local paper. It will give you some history:

Under cover of darkness, and using slight of hand that would make Merlin
proud, our state senate voted to pass a new "assault" weapons ban on
Thursday evening, May 25th.

This should not only concern owners of semi-automatic rifles, but all
citizens because of the manner in which this bill was passed. The bill,
authored by senators Jepsen (D- District 27 ), Penn (D- District 23),
Nickerson (D - District 36) and endorsed by Attorney General Blumenthal
received thorough scrutiny at a Public Safety Committee hearing back on
March 20th, 2001, and died in committee, because of a lack of support.

During the hearing, the Public Safety Commissioner, Arthur L. Spada, was
asked by a panel member if the State Police have seen any increase in the
use of the firearms in question, in the commission of crimes, to which he
replied "No." after consulting with an aide. His answer was followed by a
loud round of applause (started by yours truly) since it was the one and
only bit of truth spoken by a public servant up to that point in the day.
Another panel member scolded those of us in attendance, and stated that we
would be removed from the hearing if we continued to applaud the truth.

Senator Jepsen and Attorney General Blumenthal both testified before the
committee, and neither was able to offer any evidence that semi-automatic
rifles are increasingly being used in crimes. Blumenthal said that he had
spoken with several police chiefs, all of whom are "good men", in his words,
and that they think the ban is a good idea. That was their strongest
argument for the ban, that a couple of "good men" think it's a good idea.
There were more than three hundred "good men" at the hearing, to oppose this
bill, many of whom provided testimony that included facts and figures to
prove that these rifles are not a danger to the public at large.

(continued)

After the hearing, the committee decided not to vote to bring the bill
before the senate, because a majority on the committee did not support the
bill. It was reported that the bill was dead. Those of us that own some of
these rifles rejoiced! We would not be made instant criminals by our
legislature! We won this battle, or so we thought.

Friday morning, May 26th, our bubble burst. News spread on the internet like
lightning! The senate passed SB 1402, AN ACT CONCERNING A SINGLE STATE
HANDGUN PERMIT, except they removed the portion of the bill concerning that
permit, and replaced it with the full text of the "assault" weapons ban. I
don't know if we are the first state in which this happened, but this has to
be one of the most uniquely titled semi-automatic rifle bans in the country.

Ignoring all of the testimony against this bill at the public hearing, the
senate, at an hour approaching midnight, without any public debate, passed
the Penn/Jepsen semi-auto rifle ban, calling it "An act concerning a single
state handgun permit." This should outrage all of the citizens of
Connecticut, not just gun owners. It should make us all wonder what other
kinds of garbage bills have been passed with innocent sounding names.

Most sportsman and gun owners groups had endorsed SB1402, when it was an act
concerning a single state handgun permit. Most of the newsletters and
correspondence with legislators and senators sent by these groups, asked
that this bill be supported. It is a known fact that most representatives
cannot read and comprehend all of the legislation that is written during any
given session. There is simply too much of it, and it would be humanly
impossible to do so. Our representatives rely on us to understand the bills
we support and oppose, and use our input to decide how to vote. A lot of
senators may have seen the support for SB 1402 coming from their
constituents, and voted accordingly, not realizing that the bill in no way
resembled the version that we asked them to support.

As of this writing, the bill is being considered by the house or
representatives for passage. It is imperative that everyone contact his or
her legislator, and ask that he/she oppose this slight of hand, and any
others like it which may occur in the future. The senators guilty of this
type of misdeed will only continue this practice if we let them get away
with it.