Connecticut lawmakers were set to vote on Wednesday on some of the toughest gun regulations in the United States in a package agreed to after a December school shooting that left 26 people dead including 20 children.
Legislators in the two Democratic-controlled chambers agreed earlier this week to put to a vote the package, which includes a ban on sales of high-capacity ammunition clips, background checks for private gun sales and creates a registry for existing ammunition magazines capable of holding 10 or more bullets.
The shooter in the December attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut used high-capacity clips holding 30 bullets, which allowed him to shoot 154 rounds in less than five minutes.
When they announced the deal on Monday, Connecticut lawmakers said the measure went beyond any other state in banning the sale of new high-capacity magazines from January 1, 2014 and creating a registry of existing magazines of that kind in the state. Owning an unregistered high-capacity magazine will become a felony.
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, had pushed for passage of the law and is expected to sign it.
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