Federal / USCG-required boat safety equipment now illegal in CT.

[desidog]

I was in West Marine getting ready for the sailing season, and this occurred to me... The Coast Guard requires visual safety aides - flares - on boats over 26 feet.

Obviously, this needs clarification, but bear with me. Grenade launchers were banned already in CT, but now they've added "flare launchers." So, either all CT boaters will have to declare their flare guns, and passing through CT waters will get RI boaters in the clink....or, if i read the law to the letter, only semi-auto grenade and flare launchers are banned, in which case an M-79 should be legal to own (after DD paperwork.) But they're not....

To further confused the situation, most any 12ga. could shoot a 12ga. flare...

Rationally, boaters won't get arrested for having a safety device required by Federal law, but this new AWB is not rational. The two laws conflict.

How do you read it? Is West Marine an illegal arms dealer now?

 

[mp510]

Flare launchers are not banned in Connecticut. They count as a qualifying feature, which could cause a firearm to be an assault weapon, if they are attached to such firearm or the individual possesses a an assault weapon through constructive possession.

 

[The-Reaver]

How many people die in boating accidents each year? We should ban water.

 

[USAF_Vet]

How many people die in boating accidents each year? We should ban water.

But how many guns are lost in boating accidents? The federal government should give gun owners free boats and cross their fingers.

 

[Blackbeard]

I don't think the flare launcher is illegal. A flare launcher attached to a firearm could cause the firearm to be a banned assault weapon. Unless you keep your boat flare launcher on the rail of your AR-15, you're fine.

 

[berettaprofessor]

And then there are those inserts for flare launchers that allow you to fire just about any caliber from shotgun to 22 as a single shot.

 

[Claymore1500]

But how many guns are lost in boating accidents? The federal government should give gun owners free boats and cross their fingers.

I'm down with that! I have been trying to talk the ol' lady into letting me buy a boat anyway.

 

[19-3Ben]

My greatest wish is that something as innocuous as a boating flare gun is now illegal.
It'll give us great ammo (no pun intended) as an example of the rushed manner in which this was drafted and accepted and the poor wording involved. This law was drafted in a manner that is contrary to the legislative process and the spirit of legislative duty.