Remington Arms Munitions Factor

Connecticut has a history of gun manufacturing.  This may be related to the brass industry in the State and maybe not.  I, personally, had never owned a gun until I was living in Albuquerque, NM, (United States) on a full-time basis a few years ago.  In modern New Mexico, which was the land of Billy the Kidd and numerous other 19th Century gunslingers, just about 50% of the population seemed to own guns.  I recall that there are no specific restrictions in New Mexico or requirements for carrying a gun around town.  On New Years Eve at midnight, the "tradition" of firing guns in the air was fashionable. Years later in Connecticut, somehow some of the "citizens" picked-up this New Years Eve habit.

Some States including Connecticut require a permit "for carrying".  I started on this blog subject due to the high volume of illegal firearms in Bridgeport, CT and the related street gun violence in Bridgeport the last few years.  A city, once proud of its Remington munitions factory which supplied ammunition to Allied troops during the war, has become consumed by illegal gun violence.

Living in New Mexico full-time was a treat for me since I love the outdoors.  Many of the people that I spent time with on the weekend had and carried guns.  Weekends were spent with the Brittany Club training our dogs on the mesa for field trialing and hunting.  A life of horses and dogs suits me.  I spent so much time out in the desert and mountains that I went and legally purchased my first firearm, a Remington 870 Pump Wingmaster shotgun.  Used the gun primarily for Trap Shooting at the Range not really for hunting birds.  I use a starter's pistol which fired blanks for field dog training.  The shotgun was a little fancy with nice engravings on the stock so I always kept it shined and polished.  The connection between my Remington shotgun in New Mexico and my place of birth, Bridgeport, CT did not click at the time. I had forgotten that  Bridgeport, CT was the home until 1986 of the Remington Munitions Factory.  Since 1986 the empty factory building has been decimated by vandals and arson.  The television series Ghost Hunters or Paranormal Investigation filmed an episode in the old factory building a few years ago:

Weeks after purchasing my first shotgun, I went and legally purchased a Browning
9 mm Practical.  Learned how to load the magazines with efficiency and became a fairly good marksman with practice at the Range.  The mesa was so deserted at that time, that I could prop a soda or beer 6-pack cardboard box on the top of a cactus and take target practice.  Always set the cardboard target at the base of a hill so the bullets would not stray.  I was not trying to emulate Annie Oakley, however, I became proficient at shooting the pistol right- and left-handed   I was not in a quandry about legally owning guns and keeping them at home safe with trigger locks.   The trigger lock keys were always tucked in a safe location.

When I returned home to Connecticut, I brought the guns with me, unloaded and packed in their cases with the trigger locks. I had called some of the local Connecticut gun shops to determine the legal and best way to  transport the firearms back home.  Back in Connecticut, I kept the guns locked at home and where no one else could access the trigger lock keys.  I was aware that a permit was required in Connecticut to carry firearms, so I kept the guns at home and owned them for a number of years without any problems.   After 9/11 in 2001, I had a difficult time finding ammunition for the firearms even for personal protection at home.

Ultimately, as a result of some illegitimate complaints, I had a telephone call from a Bridgeport police detective who asked me to come in and talk to him.  I had no idea what the reason for the call was at the time.  A week before, a teenager from a house next door was arrested for shooting another young adult in the leg in some other neighborhood.   I thought that this may be related to the detective's telephone call and request.  So the next day I went to the station and met with the detective.  The teenager's arrest next door turned-out not to be the reason for the telephone call.  There were some other issues including with 1 or 2 neighbors about me a woman having personal firearms with trigger locks at home.  One neighbor has friends and family on the police department and  .... has had more than one criminal in and out of her house for the last few years.  I do not speak to this neighbor who has demonstrated a few years of overt cocaine-use combined with marijuana odors wafting from the neighbor's house in the summer months among other things.   I do not use drugs or smoke marijuana and do not allow the stuff around me.   Another neighbor, openly brags about his gun permit and his guns including an automatic rifle of some sort.  Yet, this neighbor has been openly drunk many days of the week and goes out and drives after drinking sometimes carrying his handgun.

In any event, this is not the same neighborhood that I grew-up in years ago.   I often wondered why I even bothered to return to Connecticut with this neighborhood that has evolved into a commune style, war lord hang-out.  Briefly, the detective asked me for my pistol.  I explained that the pistol was legally purchased and that I did not carry the firearm, but kept the gun at home with a trigger lock?  The detective had no warrant to take the pistol.  He said when I questioned him that it was "TEMPORARY" .  Two years have elapsed and the pistol has not been returned to me.  My understanding is that the pistol should have been legally returned to me after 1 year. 
I was never contacted about my pistol and the prospect of having this $1000 piece of property returned to me.   I had owned this pistol for a number of years without any problems.

Hence, Bridgeport has innumerable illegal guns on the streets and almost weekly gun violence.  Yet my legal, personal home-defense weapon which I had for many years disappeared.  I have yet to hire a legal specialist to determine the whereabouts of my pistol since I do not want to get shot by my own missing pistol by an armed robber.

Yesterday, there was a report on a local television news station that there were 60 break-in attempts in the month of August in the area.  Probably, a majority percentage of those break-ins would be by armed robbers which has been the pattern in the neighborhood and adjacent neighborhoods.

Needless to say, there is serious irony when a legal and trigger-locked weapon is confiscated and termed "TEMPORARY",  while there are a large volume of illegal guns all over the City of Bridgeport.

The miserable fate of the Remington Arms munitions factory on the other-side-of-town is symbolic of the drastic alteration in the Bridgeport lifestyle from industrial boom town to slobville status of illegal guns, shootings, drugs, and a haven for all sorts of criminals.   

Who says you can't go home?