These New CT Laws That Can Change Your Life Go Into Effect Now

CONNECTICUT — Bears and Space Force are finally catching a break, but legal gun owners will be feeling a pinch, under new laws that take effect in Connecticut Oct. 1.

The complete list of new laws is on the state's website; here are some highlights:

Following on the hind paws of several human/ursine close encounters this year — including the fatal shooting of a beloved neighborhood icon in Newtown — state legislators codified guidelines for how residents should handle bear visits. The new law permits shooting a bear in self-defense, but mandates property owners attempt "reasonable nonlethal efforts (e.g., electric fencing, animal guardians, or fortified structures)" to prevent damage.

Another new law establishes "sexual assault of an animal" as a class A misdemeanor, and all which that entails.

A broad gun control law takes effect in Connecticut on Oct. 1. The regulations place new restrictions upon the open carrying of firearms, their storage, the purchase of body armor, the transport of long guns, the bulk purchase of firearms, pistol permit training, and large capacity magazines, among other regulations. Enthusiasts can still legally own registered AR-15s, but the new law forbids the sale of now-banned weapons if they were manufactured before 1994.

Public Act 23-133 nixes the legal use of "Latinx" in the halls of Hartford. The law requires state agencies and employees, "when referring to the Latin American community in an official communication or form, to use the terms 'Latino,' 'Latina,' and 'Latine.'"

A little of the flash will be taken out of flash mobs, come Oct. 1. So-called "street takeovers" have been in the headlines, and now the first rules governing them have made it into the Connecticut lawbooks. Anyone who attempts to "incite or recruit by any action, method, device or means," including social media, will be in violation of the new statute.

The state laws relating to blight, littering, and related conditions get quite a bit tougher in October. The penalties become much more stiff — the maximum state littering fine spikes from $199 to $500 — and the powers of state and local authorities to regulate blight expand from just residential properties to commercial.

The state will be requiring interrogators to play by Marquess of Queensberry rules, come October. Any confession obtained from a defendant using "deception or coercive tactics" will automatically be considered involuntary (unless proven otherwise), and inadmissible in court.

There'll be no more secretly slipping inmates out of one correctional facility and into another — at least legally — either. A new law requires the state's Department of Correction to notify each victim of the crime for which the person is incarcerated, as well as the transferred person’s immediate family members.

The Department of Transportation's "wrong-way driver countermeasures" will kick in on at least 120 highway exit ramps deemed "high risk," effective Oct. 1. The tech will alert motorists with flashing lights when they are going in the wrong direction, and also notify law enforcement. The legislation directs UConn to begin testing the use of directional rumble strips that alert drivers through vibration and sound when driving the wrong way. A pilot program will also broadcast alerts about a wrong-way driver’s presence on electronic highway message boards.

If you find yourself circling round and round in search of a motel charging an hourly rate, blame human trafficking. Senate Bill 1117 is designed to make life more difficult for the modern slavers by criminalizing lodging offered with an occupancy period that is for 12 hours or less.

Effective October, Connecticut higher education institutions can no longer leverage a student’s transcript for unpaid debts. The school must provide a student’s employer, prospective employer, or a branch of the U.S. military access to a transcript access to their transcript, regardless of payment status. A 2020 report by non-profit Ithaka S+R estimated 6.6 million students nationwide have those "stranded credits" awaiting final tuition and fee payments.

And make sure you don't Bogart that horseshoe crab. A new law prohibits the hand-harvesting of horseshoe crabs or their eggs from any Connecticut waters. Beachcombers found to be in violation will be fined $25.

Finally, Connecticut members of Space Force get some long overdue love in the form of House Bill 5510 which expands the state's general definitions of "armed forces" and "members of armed forces" to include them. May seem trivial to you, but it's a big deal for those hoping to collect state veterans' benefits such as property tax exemptions, tuition benefits, and burial in a state veterans’ cemetery.

Semper supra!