The Connecticut Citizens Defense League (CCDL) announced 8-31-2021 that The previous day it filed a federal
civil rights action in the United States District Court against the Police Chiefs of Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport
and Waterbury to stop their blatant and ongoing violations of CCDL members’ right to keep and bear arms and
other constitutional rights.
CCDL was forced to bring suit after learning that these cities are unjustifiably delaying law-abiding city residents’
applications for municipal firearm permits, the first step in applying for a state-issued pistol permit. The CCDL is
bringing this action on behalf of its many members in each of Connecticut’s largest cities. CCDL is joined in this
action by individual plaintiffs from each of the cities:
OREL JOHNSON: Orel went to the Hartford Police Department in June to apply for a municipal firearm permit. Orel
was directed to put his name on a list, and told that Hartford PD would call him when it was ready to accept his
application. Orel has followed up on numerous occasions since, but Hartford PD will still not take his application.
SHAQUANNA WILLIAMS: Shaquanna went to the New Haven Police Department in August to apply for a municipal
firearm permit. Her documents were already completed, and she had already paid to have her fingerprints taken.
New Haven PD refused to take Shaquanna’s application, and instead gave her an appointment in March 2022 just
to submit her application. By then, her fingerprints will be stale and she will have to pay again for new fingerprints.
ANNE CORDERO: Anne has been trying to submit her application for a municipal firearm permit to the Bridgeport
Police Department since last year. In June, Bridgeport PD finally instructed her to sign up for an appointment to
submit her application. Bridgeport’s first available appointment just to submit her application is late January 2022.
JAMIE EASON: Jamie managed to submit his application to the Waterbury Police Department in August, at which
time he was informed that the Waterbury PD will not finish processing his application for about forty-eight weeks
(eleven months) even though state statutes require no more than an eight week (two month) turnaround time.
“In addition to violating these citizen’s constitutional right to access the permitting process, these cities are
notorious for violating their resident’s constitutional rights by excessively delaying the application process. The
CCDL is standing up for the residents of these cities, many of whom are minorities fighting for their right to keep
and bear arms for personal protection. It is unfathomable that those charged with enforcing our laws would so
blatantly violate them by delaying the process to exercise a constitutional right,” said Holly Sullivan, CCDL President.
Connecticut Citizens Defense League, Inc. is a non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots organization of more than 41,000
members, committed to protecting the unalienable constitutional right of all citizens to keep and bear armsthrough
legislative and grassroots advocacy, education, research, publishing, legal action and programs.
Attorney Doug Dubitsky and Attorney Craig Fishbein are representing CCDL and the individual plaintiffs in this
federal civil rights action.