Gun safety advocates, officials gathered in Hartford at major summit where President Biden will speak

Highlighting Connecticut’s role as a national leader in gun safety, President Joe Biden will be traveling Friday to West Hartford to hail the biggest gun law in the past three decades.

Biden is the marquee speaker in a summit to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which Biden last year signed into law.

About 600 people gathered Friday morning at the university’s Lincoln Theater, a small venue that was chosen for the invitation-only summit long before Biden was confirmed as the main attraction.

Inside the theater, some held photos of loved ones who had been killed by gun violence. One woman said America is now a whole nation of survivors. Still, the mood was hopeful, with inner city groups and large national gun violence groups slated to collaborate in a search for solutions.

The event was not open to the general public at large, but numerous gun safety groups were present with different colored T-shirts for each group, such as orange for Connecticut Against Gun Violence. Various group members gathered for photographs and selfies around U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a key player in writing the bipartisan legislation and a national leader on gun control.

Murphy and his staff largely organized the summit, along with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and others as co-sponsors.

The event opened with remarks by Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, who described Murphy as “the single strongest voice” in the U.S. Congress for gun safety. Bronin generated applause from the partisan crowd by saying that the gun control movement is “stronger than the NRA by far.”

He described multiple shootings in Hartford, including the death of a 12-year-old girl who got caught in the crossfire not far from the state Capitol.

With Gov. Ned Lamont standing next to him, Bronin noted the new law signed by Lamont that tightens Connecticut’s gun laws.

The gun laws are passed “because of you, because of the movement,” Lamont said. “I love the fact that Connecticut is a leader. We lead. This is how laws happen. It starts with you.”

Noting that Connecticut was once known as “the arsenal of democracy” with numerous gun manufacturers, Lamont said that times have changed. The work, he said, must continue.

“In many cases, our cops are being outgunned,” Lamont said. “We’ve got to get the illegal guns off the streets.”

Saying that Second Amendment supporters frequently say the problem is mental health, Lamont said the state is addressing both mental health and guns.

“Every time you tell me it’s not about the guns – it’s about the guns,” Lamont said.

Lamont then introduced Murphy, who received a standing ovation from the partisan crowd.

“I want to thank the thousands of people who are joining us online today,” Lamont said to the capacity crowd in the theatre. “This summit is a small show of this movement’s collective power. … We should do it more often.”

The summit, known as The National Safer Communities Summit, is a signature event with additional keynote addresses by national Education Secretary Miguel Cardona of Meriden and former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, a national gun-control advocate who suffered serious injuries when she was shot in the head in January 2011 by a mentally disturbed shooter in her home state of Arizona in a supermarket parking lot. Giffords got one of the largest rounds of applause when her name was mentioned.

The event was held at the University of Hartford, where President Barack Obama spoke on gun safety in April 2013 to a packed gymnasium of more than 3,000 people following the shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

The summit is designed to mark the first anniversary of The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was the biggest gun safety law in three decades.

The summit included speeches by Murphy and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who are co-sponsoring the event with other groups. Murphy gained national attention as a lead negotiator for the package of 2022 gun safety measures, and he pushed for the plan along with Blumenthal.

What the law does

Supporters cite the law as the most important bipartisan gun control legislation in the past three decades.

The law largely closes the “boyfriend loophole” to block those convicted of domestic violence in the future from legally buying a gun, makes more sellers register as federally licensed firearms dealers so that they must conduct criminal background checks on potential buyers, and allows more time for extended background checks to search the mental health and juvenile records for those under 21 seeking to buy a gun.

The law also cracks down on illegal gunrunners, earmarks money for community violence prevention, and provides $15 billion for addressing school safety and mental health issues, often cited as a reason for mass shootings. The law earmarks funding for “red flag” laws nationwide, including the first state law that dates back more than two decades in Connecticut following a workplace shooting in March 1998 at the state lottery headquarters in Newington.

Since his speeches on the Senate floor, Murphy has become a leader in the gun safety movement and has appeared on national television on CNN and MSNBC. Along with Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, Murphy is credited with helping mold the bipartisan coalition that voted 65-33 with 15 Republicans breaking with their party to vote for the bill with the Democrats.

“The outcome would have been inconceivable a few years ago,” Murphy told the enthusiastic crowd. “Now, for the first time, it is gun safety voters, not the NRA, who matter most in Washington, D.C.”

The latest statistics, he said, said that gun violence rates “might be falling by more than 10% in some places” around the country.

Not far from his Hartford home, Murphy told the story of meeting with young children about gun violence. He said that the youths were able to tell the difference in the sounds between gun shots and fireworks.

The girl turned to Murphy and said, “I shouldn’t need to know the difference.”

A speaker, Nelba Marquez-Greene, said that her identity in many ways has been reduced to three words : “Sandy Hook Mom.”

Marquez-Greene said she drove into the main entrance of the University of Hartford as protestors held signs defending the Second Amendment regarding the right to bear arms.

“This morning was hard coming in, seeing all the people who are against trying to save lives,” she told the crowd. “I’m a therapist and a former teacher, so you’re not leaving here without a lesson.”

Citing the “Ode to Joy,” she said that the battle would continue. She received a standing ovation.

The summit included the most prominent gun-control groups around the nation and in Connecticut, including BRADY, GIFFORDS, Sandy Hook Promise, Newtown Action Alliance, March For Our Lives, Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Action, Every Town for Gun Safety and Connecticut Against Gun Violence, among others.

Schedule and how to watch

The first panel of the day will discuss the impact of Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to states to fund the creation and administration of laws, community-based violence prevention initiatives, school-based mental health services, afterschool and summer programs and school safety initiatives, among other programs.

Other panels at 10:20 and 11 a.m. will cover Bipartisan Safer Communities Act “implementation work still to come” and future gun control efforts in the “post BSCA federal landscape.”

Biden’s keynote speech will start at 2 p.m. with the conference expected to come to a close shortly after 2:30.

A livestream of the event is available here.

Protesters

Outside, a small group of anti-Biden protesters with signs saying, “Let’s go, Brandon,” and waving American flags and one saying “F Joe Biden,” gathered at the entrance to the campus, along with a few holding signs championing Second Amendment rights. A few Marxist Socialists held signs saying, “Go home Jim Crow Joe” to protest America’s involvement in the war in Ukraine.

Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com.