New Haven Register:

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy may have reconciled differences with the state’s teachers, but not with firearm manufacturers.

Malloy, early in his administration, insulted teachers as he embarked on education reform, when he said all they have to do to earn tenure was just show up for four years. He has since apologized and the governor now has the backing of both the AFT Connecticut and the Connecticut Education Association.

But the firearms industry is another story.

Joseph H. Bartozzi, an officer with O.F. Mossberg & Sons, in a forum piece in the New Haven Register, defended industry efforts to make guns safer.

The manufacturers and the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represent the trade group, vehemently opposed the state’s strict gun reform bill adopted in 2013 after the killing in 2012 of 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown by a lone gunman.

The new law expanded the need for permits, banned magazines with more than 10 bullets and outlawed 100 more assault weapons in Connecticut. Residents who had bought them prior to the ban could keep them, but they had to be registered.

The law is playing a part in the gubernatorial election between Malloy and Republican Tom Foley.

Bartozzi repeated Malloy’s statement to CNN in April 2013 on his perception of what motivates the gun industry.

“What this is about is the ability of the gun industry to sell as many guns to as many people as possible, even if they are deranged, even if they are mentally ill, even if they have a criminal background,” the governor said at the time. “They don’t care.”

In a meeting with the New Haven Register editorial board Monday, Malloy was asked if that continued to be a fair characterization.

“Pretty much … pretty fair. Otherwise they would be advocating for universal background checks. I have had discussions with people who work for Mossberg, as well as every other major gun company who have actually indicated to me, on a personal basis, that they don’t have a problem with universal background checks, but they are afraid of the NRA and they won’t stand up to it,” Malloy said.

He said the one company who did, Smith & Wesson, “was driven into bankruptcy because they did … when they advocated making changes in the gun laws. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t be supporting and captive of an entity that opposes what 90 percent of Americans support, and that is universal background checks.”

In my open letter to Mossberg & Sons I told you that Malloy didn’t care about facts – facts like universal background checks have nothing whatsoever to do with crime.  I told you he didn’t care about having the input of “experts.”  I told you that this was exclusively a calculated, political decision based on Malloy’s totalitarian world view.

Now, not only is Malloy telling you the same thing, he is calling Mossberg & Sons liars and reiterating his claim that you are out to sell as many guns to dangerous people as you can.

So how long will you, Mossberg & Sons, continue to ensconce yourselves in a state where you aren’t welcome, and where you’ve been told that very thing by the Governor himself?  We know exactly where Malloy stand on the issues.  There is nothing to see here.  The surprising thing is that Mossberg continues to take the beating.