Obama Visit: Residents Offer Views on Gun Control

Next week President Barack Obama will visit the University of Hartford to speak about gun violence and his ongoing efforts to get new gun control legislation passed in Congress.

Before the national debate comes to West Hartford, Simsbury Patch asked readers what they thought of both President Obama's position on gun control and the tough new gun control legislation Conn. lawmakers are expected to pass on Wednesday.

Here's what Simsbury Patch readers had to say about the issue:

"There are two problems that are not being addressed: Mental Health and access to firearms. Nothing in the CT gun laws being passed today would have stopped Adam Lanza. All that these laws will do is punish law abiding citizens. The new laws are a clear violation of both the US Constitution and the CT Constitution." —Bob Margolis

"Mental health and access is absolutely part of the problem and should be addressed.. It is however not the only problem. Citizens are law abiding by default until they break the law. There is no one size fits all solution and that is why this legislation could also be considered just part of a solution. It's not all about Adam Lanza. There are many pieces to this puzzle."  —Chris Wiecking

"The purpose of this legislation is to have an effect on reducing gun violence. Making new laws regulating guns will only affect those who abide by the law, thus not killers. I believe these laws give a false sense of security that we are doing something helpful when in fact, criminals and the mentally insane will not be changed. Look at places where tougher gun laws were made. Nah, doesn't work.
Let's rally to tackle the tough issues of improving our mental health system and increasing school security instead of taking away the constitutional rights of law abiding citizens." —Tina Browning

Do you have an opinion on the issue of gun control that you'd like to share? Tell us about it in the comments!