Connecticut does have a subjective suitability requirement for permits to carry, like Mass does. The difference is that in Connecticut, there is an accessible, viable mechanism to have reviewed which puts the burden of proof on the issuing authority to prove unsuitability.
Agreed. However, unless the person does something that effectively makes them a prohibited person, this mechanism (the Board of Firearms Permit Examiners or BFPE) will order the issuing authority to issue (or re-issue in the case of a revocation) the license.
A timely example is open carry. People have been open carrying in CT for about 8 years now. The first people were arrested and their Pistol Permits (pp) revoked. In 100% of the cases they were ordered reissued by the BFPE. Of course now, OC is accepted by most PDs and I don't know of any arrests for OC in the last 4 or 5 years.
So statutorily CT is may issue. Practically speaking, it is shall issue. Since the IAs have for the most part stopped playing games because they know the BFPE will only order them to issue the license.
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Don will have to confirm but my understanding is that in CT you can still buy a pre-1994 AR as long as it's not one of the handful listed by name in the AWB. In fact, I have seen them in gun shops for sale recently, well by recently I mean over two years ago but after the new ban went into effect. They are expensive but they are available. I think you can even purchase them out of state and have them sent to a FFL here and buy it that way.
If that's correct that means I could buy a pre-94 lower, strip it down and build it back up however I wanted if I didn't like the older barrel, etc. Also, pre-94 exempts it from the stupid evil feature count. So not only can you still buy one, you can configure it any way you want as long as it still has a 16" barrel and isn't full auto (unless you go through the extra hoops to have that, which you can still do in CT I think).
In addition I think it even exempts it from having to be registered at all. The thing you can't get around legally in CT is the high cap mags. Even if you had them before the new laws you had to register them and there is no pre-ban exemption for high cap mags.
Again, I will have to fact check that and/or see if Don can confirm it, but that's how I read it last time I looked.
Carl is correct. Any pre-94 ban AR is fine in CT, in any configuration. It does not have to have been in CT prior to any date. If it was made pre-94 ban, it is a RIFLE not an AW.
Based on our attorney's at CT Carry's interpretation, NAMED firearms would still be subject to the ban. However, the DESPP seems to take a more charitable view of things, concluding that ANY pre-94 ban firearm is exempt from the draconian ban of 2013.
See follow up post for citation.
Of note. There is case law
(STATE OF CONNECTICUT v. ROBERT KALMAN)
where the term "Avtomat Kalashnikov Type" was clarified. Someone was arrested with a non named brand AK and it went to trial. At trial a firearms "expert" testified to the judges that the bolt was the "heart and lungs" of the firearm. The Judge determined in his ruling that any AK Type that used the same bolt as an actual AK met the legal definition of an Assault Weapon.
That is why properly neutered AKs in any caliber that did not use a 7.62x39 bolt were perfectly legal in CT until PA13-3 passed in 2013. Since they didn't meet the named criteria.
So based on this. Any pre-94 ban AK in something like .223 or 5.45 x 39 is perfectly legal.
Since I reload, I've owned a pre-ban .223 Norinco 86 for years. Its a great gun.
