Guys this was sent out by Connecticut Citizens Defense League
Their Notice..
Critical Note: There are presently videos, articles, and some blogs circulating that are confusing many people. These all point to one ore more conspiracy theories.
While some of the information has not been released yet by the investigative teams, the Today show video in particular that mentions an AR15 in the trunk of a car is actually a video that was taken the morning after the school was attacked. That information has since been corrected to state that an AR15 type rifle was used in the attack.
Testifying with any kind of assertion that there is a conspiracy of some kind going on, will mean that you will not be taken seriously, and may mean a set back for us all. Please heed this message.
Additional Tips (Please see original tips below):
We no longer need to bring additional copies to testify with other than what you may need for yourself.
Web page for the Bipartisan Task Force:
A Safer Connecticut | Connecticut General Assembly
Email Public Hearing testimony:
[email protected] Please indicate in the subject of your email to which working group(s) you would like your testimony directed (gun violence prevention, school security, and/or mental health services). Please be aware that any submitted testimony may be made public.
Most of the rest of this email is the same as the last sent, with a few additions. New Proposed Bills since the last email are listed below, highlighted in yellow.
Hearings are scheduled for the following dates:
School Safety Working Group Public Hearing
Friday, January 25th, 2013
Legislative Office Building
9:30am, Room 2C
Gun Violence Prevention Working Group Public Hearing
Monday, January 28th, 2013
Legislative Office Building
10:00am, Room 2C
Mental Health Working Group Public Hearing
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013
Legislative Office Building
10:00am, Room 2C
Full Bi-Partisan Task Force Public Hearing
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013
Newtown High School
6:00pm
Important Note: These hearings are not bill specific. There will still be hearings afterwards on specific Bills that either have been introduced, or which will be introduced. We do not have specific agenda items for each of these hearings. We suggest when preparing testimony that we do the following:
1) School safety hearing- What to focus on: How children and even faculty are defenseless, and that the majority of these mass casualty crimes occur in "gun free zones". Consideration for police, armed guards or even the possibility of staff carrying a firearm should be considered before banning guns and restricting the rights of law abiding people.*
2) Gun Violence Hearing- What to focus on: the actions recommended from this hearing, may have some bearing later, on which of the gun bills become raised by a committee. We need to be able to address broad topics that are included in the bills that have been introduced (see bills below).
3) Mental Health Hearing- What to focus on: the lack of treatment for individuals with mental health issues, lack of medications, follow up on whether or not patients are consistently staying on medications, question whether or not there are studies on the long term effects of these medications and how patients react after extended usage.*
4) Full Bipartisan Task Force Hearing - We are not sure if we will have much of an opportunity to testify at this hearing. Based on the time, and the particular venue, this may be a symbolic public display considering the location. We do suggest preparing testimony for this particular hearing in "broad terms" that cover the scope of each task force committee.
*If you have specific knowledge or first hand experience with Mental Health issues or school security matters, we are asking that you attend these hearings in particular. The leadership of CCDL may find it difficult to attend all four of these hearings, as they are all scheduled on consecutive work days. We are coordinating with each other to ensure maximum coverage.
We should all try to communicate with each other so that we spread out coverage for each hearing. The Gun Violence Hearing is the most important one, but we also should focus on mental health and school security as well. Active CCDL members are often communicating with each other on our Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/63321754119/
Tips:
Please try to keep written testimony to one page (bullet points are good)
Please be polite when addressing our elected officials. Repeatedly using familiar phrases (though they may be true) such as "shall not be infringed" or "it violates the 2nd Amendment" wears out the legislators.
Examples of CCDL testifying can be found on our youtube page here:
CT Citizens Defense League - YouTube
Examples of written testimony from the magazine ban hearing from 2011 can be found here:
Do's and Don'ts of public hearings:
Public Hearing DOs and DONTS
If this will be your first time testifying before a committee, we welcome you, and look forward to seeing you there. Please join us!
Please contact Gun Violence task force members and ask any questions pertinent to these bills.
Gun Task force Members:
Sen. Martin Looney, Co-chair 860-240-8600
Rep. Craig Miner, Co-chair 860-240-8700
Rep. Gerald Fox III 860-240-8500
Rep. Stephen Dargan 860-240-8500
Rep. Bob Godfrey 860-240-8500
Rep. Toni Walker 860-240-8500
Rep. Rosa Rebimbas 860-240-8700
Rep. Janice Giegler 860-240-8700
Rep. Dan Carter 860-240-8700
Sen. Eric Coleman 860-240-8600
Sen. John Fonfara 860-240-8600
Sen. Joan Hartley 860-240-8600
Sen. John Kissel 860-240-8800
Sen. Scott Frantz 860-240-8800
Sen. Tony Guglielmo 860-240-8800
Sen. Kevin Witkos 860-240-8800
