CT Governor’s Pistol Permit Rate Hike Prices the Poor Out of Gun Ownership

Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s (D) proposed budget contains an increase in the cost of pistol permits that could realistically price the poor out of gun ownership.

He wants to raise the cost of a 5-year permit from “$140 to $370,” while simultaneously increasing the state’s take from $70 a permit to $300.

According to the New Haven Register, Malloy’s goal is to bring in an additional “$9 million to the state annually” in an effort to help address the “$3.6 billion deficit” they are currently facing. Malloy also wants to raise the price Connecticut residents have to pay on background checks for gun sales and transfers. The current price is $50 and he wants to raise it to $75.

There are two key lessons to learn here. First, gun control disproportionately impacts poorer families. You can see this in Chicago, where gun control and the vestiges of gun control have resulted in the existence of killing fields, not in the affluent neighborhoods on the city’s North Shore but in the poor neighborhoods on the South Side. But even without such examples, readers can see that increasing the price of a pistol permit from $140 to $370 takes a big bite out of disposable income and will immediately cause some poorer households to forego the protection available via gun ownership.

Secondly, Malloy’s push to increase the price of these permits shows the danger of allowing a government to put said permits in place to begin with. They put them in place at a nominal fee than slowly raise them, proving that the very introduction of a permit is an insidious move that leads to more gun control and/or higher gun prices.

Think about it this way–Malloy is telling Connecticut residents he wants them to pay the state $370 in order to exercise their Second Amendment rights.

Many poor families may simply be forced to opt out.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.