Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy on Thursday signed a tough new gun law that restricts sales of the sort of high-capacity ammunition clips that a gunman used to massacre 26 people in minutes in a December attack on a school.
The law also requires background checks for all gun purchases, expands the number of guns covered by the states' assault-weapons ban and establishes a $15 million fund to help schools improve security infrastructure.
"The discussion on how to protect all families in all of our communities will never end," Malloy, a Democrat, said in a statement on his Twitter feed.
The law prohibits the sale of ammunition clips capable of holding 10 or more bullets and requires owners of existing high-capacity clips to register them with the state.
Adam Lanza, the gunman who attacked a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school in December, used high-capacity clips to fire off 154 rounds in less than five minutes.
That attack, which left 20 young children dead, amplified the U.S. debate on guns, with gun-control proponents calling for stricter limits on sales of weapons and ammunition while gun-rights advocates charge those changes would violate the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Since the Newtown shooting, Colorado and New York have tightened their rules on guns, while the lower house of the Maryland legislature on Wednesday passed a bill banning all clips that hold 10 or more rounds of ammunition, which now needs final approval from the state Senate.
Lawmakers in both of Connecticut's Democratic-controlled legislative chambers approved the bill, but the debate that began on Wednesday stretched past midnight as opponents charged that the new regulations would not have prevented the Newtown shooting.
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