Former U.S. Senator Christopher J. Dodd said Monday he supports restrictions on some types of guns, particularly assault weapons, in the wake of the Denver shootings last week.
Dodd, a Democrat, was in Windsor stumping for a local democratic candidate. He questioned why anyone would need an assault rifle — one of the weapons the accused gunman used in Friday's rampage in Colorado that killed 12 and injured 58 — and said even hunters can't make a good argument in support of the sale of assault weapon, according to the blog Capitol Watch.
“People have Second Amendment rights, in a sense," the blog quotes the former senator. "I respect that and support that. But, like all rights, there needs to be limitations. The right to free speech is not unlimited. You can’t scream fire in a crowded theater, as the saying goes. The right to bear arms ought not to be an unlimited right."
His comments come at a time when some are debating the role that accessibility to guns and violence in movies may have played in the shooting attack that took place during a screen of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises."
Dodd, who has a home on the Connecticut River in East Haddam, was a longtime and powerful member of the U.S. Senate who opted not to seek re-election in 2010. He also made a brief run for president.
