President Joe Biden visited the University of Hartford Friday for the National Safer Communities Summit, where he met with gun control advocates. The president's visit came one year after the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was passed.
Biden met with various lawmakers and spoke about the need to restrict access to guns as mass shootings continue to happen across the country, more than a decade after the Sandy Hook school massacre.
A small crowd of gun rights supporters gathered in front of the university to protest Biden’s visit.
Joe Visconti, a former West Hartford Town Council member who was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, was one of the protesters who rallied outside. Visconti said he was there to protest against a new measure recently signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont, which bans the open carrying of firearms.
Visconti walked around the entrance to the school, shouting well known anti-Biden sayings including “F Joe Biden” as others carried flags with the slogan. He believes Biden advocating for a renewed assault weapon ban and background checks is an infringement on his constitutional rights. He also defended open carry.
“It gets people to not mess with you if you're in a high crime area. And not everyone does it, but one thing's for sure, criminals do not open carry until they're ready to commit a crime,” Visconti said.
Another protester, Scott Sylvia, said he felt some common ground with gun control advocates, especially the families of those who were murdered in the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012.
“We do believe in background checks. We believe in maybe even a waiting period, there's a lot of us who believe in a lot of what they're asking for … I don't think anyone should be able to just be able to go in and buy an AR-15,” Sylvia said.
Sylvia also took issue with red flag laws, which allow police in Connecticut to confiscate the firearms of someone who might be a danger to themselves and to others.
The small group kept saying their slogans, the occasional car honking in support. A few passing drivers mocked the protesters.
James Stevens who was also a part of the protest said he felt isolated due to his political beliefs in a heavily Democratic state.
“I'm resorting to making my voice here heard, you know, President Biden's here talking about gun control? Not both a couple of things I'm not very fond of,” Stevens said.
But there was no captive audience, and there were two people left outside the university a little after 2 p.m.
