According to news reports Connecticut lawmakers have announced a deal calling for some of the toughest gun laws in the country following the December mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, including a ban on new high-capacity ammunition magazines like the ones used in the brutal massacre of 20 children and six adults.

The proposed new legislation creates the nation’s first statewide “dangerous weapon offender registry”, requires new registration for existing magazines carrying 10 or more bullets, imposes immediate universal background checks for all firearms sales, creates a new “ammunition eligibility certificate,” and extends the state’s assault weapons ban to 100 new types of firearms stipulating a weapon would need only one of several features in order to be banned and could no longer be bought or sold in the state, while those already legally owned would be grand-fathered in owners will be required to register the weapons with the state; the legislation also addresses mental health issues and school security measures.

“No gun owner will lose their gun,” said House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero Jr., a Norwalk Republican. “No gun owner will lose their magazines.”

While states like New York strengthened local gun laws quickly following the attack, momentum has stalled in the United States Congress, whose members have decided it’s better to be the lick spittle’s of the National Rifle Association (NRA) than to protect innocent lives from weapons designed for the battlefield.

Connecticut should be seen as an example for lawmakers elsewhere, said Senate President Donald E. Williams Jr., a Brooklyn Democrat.

“In Connecticut, we’ve broken the mold,” he said. “Democrats and Republicans were able to come to an agreement on a strong, comprehensive bill. That is a message that should resound in 49 other states and in Washington, D.C. And the message is: We can get it done here and they should get it done in their respective states and nationally in Congress.”

The proposed legislation will be brought up for a vote this week in the Democratic Party controlled General Assembly, where passage is thought to be all but assured, after which it will be sent to Governor Dannel P. Malloy for signature.

Connecticut’s taking the lead the Federal Government should be taking, and that’s OK; if those who believe the gun industry has acquired too much power, and that it’s past time for sensible gun control can’t convince lawmakers in Washington that 20 butchered first graders is where we, as a nation must draw the line on the Second Amendment can’t convince the members of Congress we’ll take it one state at a time; two down, 48 to go.