Drizzt
February 17, 2003, 06:13 PM
Machine guns in New Milford
By:Asa Fitch February 14, 2003
Located in the tiny back room of a brown cottage on Route 7, next to a restaurant, an art restoration studio and an antiques store, D&T Arms appears to be a little out of place.
Several residents have recently voiced reservations about the new store's sign, which advertises everything it sells.
"You've got a country inn, high-end pottery, a nice landscaping store across the street, an antiques shop, and then all of the sudden you've got 'Pulp Fiction,'" Ed Vidal, whose framing and restoration studio is in the same building as D&T, said, making reference to the film that shocked many with its graphic depiction of violence.
"It disturbed me, but to each their own," Mr. Vidal said.
Though some are surprised to hear it, everything D&T sells, including the Ruger AC-556 rifle and the MAC-style semiautomatics, is legal. And the owners, along with gun advocates, insist that the weapons are safe.
"People collect them, and they're fun to shoot," said Tom Whitcomb, 44 a Gulf War veteran who runs the store with his partner, Dom Spano. "The people who are shooting these things tend to know what they're doing."
Mr. Whitcomb and Mr. Spano opened D&T about three months ago, but put up their sign just two weeks ago. Both men are members of a private gun club in Simsbury, where they participate in shooting competitions with automatic weapons.
"Incidents of machine guns being used in crime is miniscule, except for people who don't like guns, don't understand them, and don't understand the people who like them," said Bob Crook, executive director of the Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen, which is based in Hartford "I would suggest that there has never been an incident of a child getting ahold of a machine gun. And to my knowledge there has never been an accidental death by these guns."
Mr. Whitcomb said heavy government regulation, combined with the expense of the guns-the least expensive is about $1,500-prevents the most dangerous weapons from getting into the hands of criminals. Gun owners lock the valuable guns in heavy safes, he said, adding that D&T was guarded "like Fort Knox," with bars over the windows and an extensive alarm system.
According to Mr. Whitcomb, only about 10 government-registered semiautomatic and automatic weapons have been involved in murders since 1934, when the federal government started monitoring the guns in response to organized crime violence in Chicago.
"To get a submachine gun it takes usually a minimum of about two months and as much as eight months," he said. "The feds approve each sale."
Not all assault weapons are legal. In Connecticut, state statutes contain a list of about 70 weapons that cannot be sold, including Avtomat Kalashnikov AK-47 types, Colt AR-15s, Street Sweeper and Striker 12 revolving cylinder shotguns, and UZI Carbines.
To obtain one of the semiautomatic or automatic guns not on that list, a buyer must pass through several filters at local, state and federal levels, and pay a $200 transfer tax. The process can take months, and any felony, domestic abuse misdemeanor, mental illness, dishonorable discharge, or a battery of other conditions, can exclude a buyer from owning the gun.
Nevertheless, gun control advocates say the weapons remain a danger, arguing that the guns could be stolen by criminals or become fatal playthings for curious children. Further, they say, automatic weapons aren't very accurate and hence not good for target-shooting. The risk to society, they say, outweighs any benefit for an individual.
One Connecticut group, the Connecticut Collaborative for Education Against Gun Violence, doesn't advocate an outright ban on automatic assault weapons. Instead, according to co-executive director Lisa Labella, the group wants to abolish the list of illegal guns and put in its place a more generic classification of what's illegal. The danger of enumerating specific models, she said, lies in the possibility that manufacturers or individuals could modify illegal guns and call them by a different name, skirting a ban.
But the controversy in New Milford is less centered on the legality of the weapons than on the advertisement of "machine guns" and "silencers" on the sign outside the store. Some consider the phrases unsettling, if not offensive.
"It's not something you expect to see, and so, even though it might be legal, it's a little upsetting to see someone advertising machine guns in the neighborhood where you live, because they have a connotation other than hunting," Town Council member Robert Guendelsberger said.
According to zoning department officials, the town can regulate the size, position, and height of a sign, but usually cannot regulate wording, especially when it refers to items the store legally sells.
"All we can regulate is where the sign is, or we can say if it's too big or too small," said Zoning Commission member Charles Raymond. "I'm flabbergasted that it's legal. But I don't know, stranger things have happened."
According to Chris Matthews, the landlord who rents the space to Mr. Whitcomb and Mr. Spano, the two are longtime residents he has known for years. If they were strangers, he said, he wouldn't have rented the space to them.
"I'm not a big fan of guns, but I'm not going to tell them what to put on their sign," Mr. Matthews said. "I'm not thrilled about it, but as long as it's legal-hey, what are you gonna do? [Mr. Spano and Mr. Whitcomb] are decent people."
Mr. Whitcomb said he may change the sign if it causes a public outcry. But he noted he has the constitutional right to possess and sell the guns, and, therefore, the advertisement is a simple exercise of free speech.
"There was a guy who called me the day after we put the sign up and told me he had no objection to what we were selling, but he said, 'I just find the words to be offensive,'" Mr. Whitcomb said. "I can understand their concerns. But if Carvel's can advertise ice cream, we can advertise as well. But it's not cast in stone. If we get a lot of flak we would consider changing it."
By:Asa Fitch February 14, 2003
Located in the tiny back room of a brown cottage on Route 7, next to a restaurant, an art restoration studio and an antiques store, D&T Arms appears to be a little out of place.
Several residents have recently voiced reservations about the new store's sign, which advertises everything it sells.
"You've got a country inn, high-end pottery, a nice landscaping store across the street, an antiques shop, and then all of the sudden you've got 'Pulp Fiction,'" Ed Vidal, whose framing and restoration studio is in the same building as D&T, said, making reference to the film that shocked many with its graphic depiction of violence.
"It disturbed me, but to each their own," Mr. Vidal said.
Though some are surprised to hear it, everything D&T sells, including the Ruger AC-556 rifle and the MAC-style semiautomatics, is legal. And the owners, along with gun advocates, insist that the weapons are safe.
"People collect them, and they're fun to shoot," said Tom Whitcomb, 44 a Gulf War veteran who runs the store with his partner, Dom Spano. "The people who are shooting these things tend to know what they're doing."
Mr. Whitcomb and Mr. Spano opened D&T about three months ago, but put up their sign just two weeks ago. Both men are members of a private gun club in Simsbury, where they participate in shooting competitions with automatic weapons.
"Incidents of machine guns being used in crime is miniscule, except for people who don't like guns, don't understand them, and don't understand the people who like them," said Bob Crook, executive director of the Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen, which is based in Hartford "I would suggest that there has never been an incident of a child getting ahold of a machine gun. And to my knowledge there has never been an accidental death by these guns."
Mr. Whitcomb said heavy government regulation, combined with the expense of the guns-the least expensive is about $1,500-prevents the most dangerous weapons from getting into the hands of criminals. Gun owners lock the valuable guns in heavy safes, he said, adding that D&T was guarded "like Fort Knox," with bars over the windows and an extensive alarm system.
According to Mr. Whitcomb, only about 10 government-registered semiautomatic and automatic weapons have been involved in murders since 1934, when the federal government started monitoring the guns in response to organized crime violence in Chicago.
"To get a submachine gun it takes usually a minimum of about two months and as much as eight months," he said. "The feds approve each sale."
Not all assault weapons are legal. In Connecticut, state statutes contain a list of about 70 weapons that cannot be sold, including Avtomat Kalashnikov AK-47 types, Colt AR-15s, Street Sweeper and Striker 12 revolving cylinder shotguns, and UZI Carbines.
To obtain one of the semiautomatic or automatic guns not on that list, a buyer must pass through several filters at local, state and federal levels, and pay a $200 transfer tax. The process can take months, and any felony, domestic abuse misdemeanor, mental illness, dishonorable discharge, or a battery of other conditions, can exclude a buyer from owning the gun.
Nevertheless, gun control advocates say the weapons remain a danger, arguing that the guns could be stolen by criminals or become fatal playthings for curious children. Further, they say, automatic weapons aren't very accurate and hence not good for target-shooting. The risk to society, they say, outweighs any benefit for an individual.
One Connecticut group, the Connecticut Collaborative for Education Against Gun Violence, doesn't advocate an outright ban on automatic assault weapons. Instead, according to co-executive director Lisa Labella, the group wants to abolish the list of illegal guns and put in its place a more generic classification of what's illegal. The danger of enumerating specific models, she said, lies in the possibility that manufacturers or individuals could modify illegal guns and call them by a different name, skirting a ban.
But the controversy in New Milford is less centered on the legality of the weapons than on the advertisement of "machine guns" and "silencers" on the sign outside the store. Some consider the phrases unsettling, if not offensive.
"It's not something you expect to see, and so, even though it might be legal, it's a little upsetting to see someone advertising machine guns in the neighborhood where you live, because they have a connotation other than hunting," Town Council member Robert Guendelsberger said.
According to zoning department officials, the town can regulate the size, position, and height of a sign, but usually cannot regulate wording, especially when it refers to items the store legally sells.
"All we can regulate is where the sign is, or we can say if it's too big or too small," said Zoning Commission member Charles Raymond. "I'm flabbergasted that it's legal. But I don't know, stranger things have happened."
According to Chris Matthews, the landlord who rents the space to Mr. Whitcomb and Mr. Spano, the two are longtime residents he has known for years. If they were strangers, he said, he wouldn't have rented the space to them.
"I'm not a big fan of guns, but I'm not going to tell them what to put on their sign," Mr. Matthews said. "I'm not thrilled about it, but as long as it's legal-hey, what are you gonna do? [Mr. Spano and Mr. Whitcomb] are decent people."
Mr. Whitcomb said he may change the sign if it causes a public outcry. But he noted he has the constitutional right to possess and sell the guns, and, therefore, the advertisement is a simple exercise of free speech.
"There was a guy who called me the day after we put the sign up and told me he had no objection to what we were selling, but he said, 'I just find the words to be offensive,'" Mr. Whitcomb said. "I can understand their concerns. But if Carvel's can advertise ice cream, we can advertise as well. But it's not cast in stone. If we get a lot of flak we would consider changing it."