Malloy welcomes President Obama's proposal

CROMWELL, Conn. (WTNH) -- Governor Malloy was consulted by the Vice President and invited to the White House Wednesday, but declined because of four long standing speaking engagements here in Connecticut. He says some of what the President is proposing has a better chance of passing in Hartford than in Washington.

"I think they're substantially better, particularly when it comes to an assault weapons ban for instance," Malloy said, "or adding additional weapons to the list."

"I think Connecticut particularly has an obligation, given what we see happened in Newtown, but what also happens in our cities, to set some examples of what could be done," said New Haven Mayor John DeStefano.

At the State Capitol Wednesday, Mayor DeStefano and leaders of other large cities and small towns joined the chorus calling for a ban on high capacity ammunition magazines. Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch saying their only purpose is to kill as many humans as possible in the shortest period of time.

"That's why you have large capacity magazines, that's why they were invented, that's why the military has them," said Finch. "They're not for target shooting, they're not for sportsmen."

However, the chief lobbyist for the rights of gun owners at the State Capitol disputes that notion.

"They use it for target shooting, they have courses they run that require this semi-automatic, large magazine," said Bob Crook, Coalition of CT Sportsmen.

"What are they practicing for? Just shooting," asked News 8's Mark Davis.

"It's games," said Crook, "it's like bowling."

"The NRA is going to have a hard time denying that there's a consensus around limiting these magazines to 10 or seven shots," Malloy said.