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- Apr 17, 2012
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Hi guys question if anyone here can answer it regarding CT gun laws.
Over the past weekend I traveled down to CT to go shooting with some buddies on their private land. I am a MA resident but did not bring any firearms, I have a CT non-resident CCW permit that has expired but I put a renewal in some 2 months ago.. I was actually bringing down a bunch on reloads to the property owner. He had come over earlier in the week for a reloading session and decided it was best if I brought the ammo to him through CT over the weekend since he was not a MA permit holder. Anyhow, I set out Saturday morning ammunition in the car and arrived my buddies property about 11AM. He owns about 300 acres of private wooded land in Northern CT just over the MA border. His property is posted and gated, with his name, number, and address on all signs. Several years ago he built a small range on the property with a number of berms and also put gates and signage around it indicating that it was a private property and a shooting range.
Anyhow, to make a long story short we had a few guys out there shooting pistols for 2-3hrs. We had just begun packing up when out of the blue local law enforcement comes bobbing down his private road in the 4wd SUV, presumably after opening the closed gate to let themselves in that clearly indicated this was private property with the owners phone number address etc. Immediately we recognized the officer as someone you may classify as over zealous (I grew up and lived in the said town for about 25yrs). He instantly approached us with his hand on his weapon telling us to place our hands over our heads until he could get us gathered together and confirm we did not have any weapons. I thought this was a reasonable act of safety on his part. From there he went on to ask us all for identification and pistol permits, and proceeded to catalog the firearms and verify their legality with the new CT laws....all of which were completely legal. He indicated that the department had received multiple complaints from a few neighbors of shooting to which he conceded was not illegal by any ordinance but he needed to make sure that we were not "illegally hunting" or "murdering" anyone. An oddity in itself since we fired at least 5-600rnds in total. Also worth noting we were at least 2500ft from any dwellings.
Everything seemed as if it were ok until he started giving me the fifth degree about having an expired permit. I politely explained to him the situation, that I had a permit, had a renewal in, but had not received my new permit in the mail. i had given him my expired permit along with my MA permit and permits I hold for a handful of other states. I also explained to him that I did not in fact transport any firearms into the state and I was merely there with some buddies testing some ammunition. At that point he started to get very offensive and stated that he was going to have to arrest me for illegal possession of a firearm. I indicated to him once again that I did not in fact have any firearms and that he did not in fact have evidence that I even fired one. At this point my buddy, the property owner, was starting to get quite perturbed and told the officer that if he did not have a search warrant he should leave. He had entered private property that was properly signed, he did not call the property owner to verify anything (nor did he receive a complaint from the property owner obviously), and it was in his opinion that having observed what was going on and there was no public safety concerns to speak of that any legitimate reason he had to enter the property had been nullified and what he was now performing constituted illegal search and seizure. Things escalated from there with what I would call behavior unbecoming of an officer until his reinforcement showed up who happened to be a good friend of the property owner. From there things settled down and both officers left with no citation of any sort issued. The "good" cop indicated that we were not in violation of any ordinances but did indicate that I was acting in a grey area of the law firing weapons on private property because the said property was not a bonafide range and/or was not a sanctioned shoot.
Anyhow, I was glad to see things settler down. I don't believe I was in the wrong shooting with some licensed friends on private property. Is this actually illegal by state definition in CT? I was always told that it was even legal to transport my firearms within CT so long as they were in cases locked and I had a permit from my home state (in other words they were not on my person loaded or anything). Perhaps I am missing something or perhaps these guys were just bent on giving us a hard time. What are your thoughts?
Over the past weekend I traveled down to CT to go shooting with some buddies on their private land. I am a MA resident but did not bring any firearms, I have a CT non-resident CCW permit that has expired but I put a renewal in some 2 months ago.. I was actually bringing down a bunch on reloads to the property owner. He had come over earlier in the week for a reloading session and decided it was best if I brought the ammo to him through CT over the weekend since he was not a MA permit holder. Anyhow, I set out Saturday morning ammunition in the car and arrived my buddies property about 11AM. He owns about 300 acres of private wooded land in Northern CT just over the MA border. His property is posted and gated, with his name, number, and address on all signs. Several years ago he built a small range on the property with a number of berms and also put gates and signage around it indicating that it was a private property and a shooting range.
Anyhow, to make a long story short we had a few guys out there shooting pistols for 2-3hrs. We had just begun packing up when out of the blue local law enforcement comes bobbing down his private road in the 4wd SUV, presumably after opening the closed gate to let themselves in that clearly indicated this was private property with the owners phone number address etc. Immediately we recognized the officer as someone you may classify as over zealous (I grew up and lived in the said town for about 25yrs). He instantly approached us with his hand on his weapon telling us to place our hands over our heads until he could get us gathered together and confirm we did not have any weapons. I thought this was a reasonable act of safety on his part. From there he went on to ask us all for identification and pistol permits, and proceeded to catalog the firearms and verify their legality with the new CT laws....all of which were completely legal. He indicated that the department had received multiple complaints from a few neighbors of shooting to which he conceded was not illegal by any ordinance but he needed to make sure that we were not "illegally hunting" or "murdering" anyone. An oddity in itself since we fired at least 5-600rnds in total. Also worth noting we were at least 2500ft from any dwellings.
Everything seemed as if it were ok until he started giving me the fifth degree about having an expired permit. I politely explained to him the situation, that I had a permit, had a renewal in, but had not received my new permit in the mail. i had given him my expired permit along with my MA permit and permits I hold for a handful of other states. I also explained to him that I did not in fact transport any firearms into the state and I was merely there with some buddies testing some ammunition. At that point he started to get very offensive and stated that he was going to have to arrest me for illegal possession of a firearm. I indicated to him once again that I did not in fact have any firearms and that he did not in fact have evidence that I even fired one. At this point my buddy, the property owner, was starting to get quite perturbed and told the officer that if he did not have a search warrant he should leave. He had entered private property that was properly signed, he did not call the property owner to verify anything (nor did he receive a complaint from the property owner obviously), and it was in his opinion that having observed what was going on and there was no public safety concerns to speak of that any legitimate reason he had to enter the property had been nullified and what he was now performing constituted illegal search and seizure. Things escalated from there with what I would call behavior unbecoming of an officer until his reinforcement showed up who happened to be a good friend of the property owner. From there things settled down and both officers left with no citation of any sort issued. The "good" cop indicated that we were not in violation of any ordinances but did indicate that I was acting in a grey area of the law firing weapons on private property because the said property was not a bonafide range and/or was not a sanctioned shoot.
Anyhow, I was glad to see things settler down. I don't believe I was in the wrong shooting with some licensed friends on private property. Is this actually illegal by state definition in CT? I was always told that it was even legal to transport my firearms within CT so long as they were in cases locked and I had a permit from my home state (in other words they were not on my person loaded or anything). Perhaps I am missing something or perhaps these guys were just bent on giving us a hard time. What are your thoughts?