Sheriffs in Colorado filed a federal lawsuit Friday ahead of the implementation of new state gun laws that broaden background checks and limit the size of ammunition magazines, saying that the bills would be nearly impossible to enforce.

The laws "severely restrict citizens' rights to own, use, manufacture, sell, or transfer firearms and firearms accessories," the sheriffs said in their complaint in the U.S. district court.

"This is a bipartisan effort," said Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith. "These are Democratic sheriffs and Republican sheriffs who came together."

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, magazine-maker Magpul Industries, and the Colorado State Shooting Association were among other groups that filed suit alongside sheriffs against the laws, which are set to take effect June 1.

Scarred by some of the deadliest incidents of gun violence in American history, including last year's Aurora movie theater shooting and the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School, the state's gun control bills gained national attention as various states and the federal government debated new gun restrictions.

The sheriffs said in the filing that their ability to enforce the laws, particularly the ban on magazines that hold more than 15 rounds, will be constrained by other concerns.

"The Sheriffs have limited resources and limited public funds to spend on investigations," they said in the court documents. "They cannot expend those resources to conduct investigations that would be necessary to monitor compliance with the new magazine restrictions. No documentation has ever been required for the retail or private purchase of magazines, making it a practical impossibility for the Sheriffs to determine whether one of the many magazines already in existence was obtained after the effective date."

The sheriffs also said that Coloradans would find it difficult to comply with expanded background check regulations that would require transfers between individuals to be conducted through a federally licensed firearms dealer. That's because many licensed firearms dealers in the state "are unwilling to conduct the transfer under such conditions," they argued.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers released a statement on Friday saying that his office would pursue court rulings on the gun legislation “as expeditiously as possible.”

“Colorado citizens, and law-abiding gun owners in particular, deserve such clarification,” Suthers said in the statement.

The state has 64 sheriffs, said Chris Olson, executive director of the County Sheriffs of Colorado. The lawsuit is being brought forth “by individual sheriffs” and his organization is not a party to the suit, he said.

At least one lawman has said that deciding which laws are constitutional should stay out of the hands of Colorado’s sheriffs.

Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson, whose county includes the Aurora movie theater where 12 people were killed last year, released a statement in January pushing back against sheriffs who said they would not enforce new gun laws.

“Public safety professionals serving in the executive branch do not have the constitutional authority, responsibility, and in most case, the credentials to determine the constitutionality of any issue,” Robinson said in the statement. “Law enforcement officials should leave it to the courts to decide whether a law is constitutional or not.”

Robinson identified himself as a supporter of Second Amendment rights in the statement, and said he would like to see better mental health services and stricter penalties for people who commit gun crimes.

Related:

• Colorado Gov. Hickenlooper signs landmark gun-control bills
• Colorado sheriff blasts colleagues over refusal to enforce gun laws
• After Newtown, states slow to embrace new gun laws

The task force responsible for deciding the future home of Sandy Hook Elementary School has narrowed it down to two locations.

One is to build a new facility just down the street from the now-vacant Newtown, Conn., elementary school where 20 first graders and six staff members were killed in December.

The second option is to renovate or rebuild at the existing site, which has some of the victims' families upset.

“I will chain my body to it and to protest if they try to reopen it,” Erica Lafferty, the daughter of the late Sandy Hook Principal Dawn Hochsprung, said. “It should be knocked down. There should be some type of long-lasting memorial.“

The task force narrowed the options down from 40 different locations and will hold a public meeting on Friday night to discuss the options and ultimately make a decision.

Veronique Pozner, who lost her son Noah in the Dec. 14 shooting, said she and her husband walked the halls at Sandy Hook Elementary School in February.

“It’s not for everybody, but just like I needed to see my son’s body, I needed to see where he died. That’s me, but I could totally understand why a parent would say I can’t do this," Pozner said.

For Pozner, the school is now "tainted ground." 

“Then again, I also know life has to go on. If that’s the best site logically, economically for the other children, the ones that are alive … Ya know, who am I to say you shouldn’t build there, you shouldn’t rebuild?,” she said.

Johnny Hanson / AP

Barry Bailey and his wife Judy, of DeRidder, La., walk out hand-in-hand, after having their 1873 Winchester shotgun appraised at the NRA's Antiques Guns and Gold Showcase during the National Rifle Association's 142 Annual Meetings and Exhibits at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. The 2013 NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits runs from Friday through Sunday, with more than 70,000 people expected to attend.

HOUSTON – A thousand miles couldn’t keep them away.

Bob Kittredge, 73, and his wife drove from Port St. Lucie, Fla., this week to attend the National Rifle Association’s annual convention. They are just two of the more than 70,000 people expected at the event, which opens Friday and runs through Sunday.

“We meet a lot of people who think the same way we do,” Kittredge said.

It will be a nine-acre gun show in the middle of a national gun fight.

About 550 exhibitors have packed the sprawling George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston.

"NRA members vote and their friends vote,” said Drew Kelley, who said he’s been an NRA member for most of his life. “That is what's driving all this."

Kelley works for ProMag Industries, a firearm magazine manufacturer in the Los Angeles area that’s been in business for about 35 years and employs about 150 people.

Kelley said he values the Second Amendment – and that recent attempts at tighter gun control measures are misguided.

“The whole idea was to keep people who should not have guns from acquiring them,” he said. “But the people who they're talking about don't go through the normal commercial processes anyway.”

'Stand and Fight'

 After the mass shootings in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., the NRA’s opponents seemed to have momentum. But two weeks ago, a bipartisan compromise on expanded background checks for commercial gun sales was shot down in the Senate.

“We don't mistake battles for wars,” outgoing NRA president David Keene told NBC News. “It was a victory in a battle, but the war continues.”

Keene’s two-year term concludes at the convention. Starting Monday, Keene will be replaced as president by Alabama attorney Jim Porter, although Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre will continue to be the organization’s main spokesman.

In his letter to convention attendees, LaPierre writes: “For months, our enemies have laid siege to the rights we cherish…But we are proving to be stronger than ever.”

This year’s convention slogan: “Stand and Fight.”

“My concern as an NRA member is that any legislation needs to be targeted towards criminals and not law-abiding people,” said Bill Dermody, who works for Savage Arms, the Massachusetts-based firearm manufacturer that is one of the largest in the country and one of the convention’s 550 exhibitors.

On Friday afternoon, scheduled speakers include Sarah Palin, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

The opposition

 Outside the convention hall, several gun control advocates are planning to protest. At least one relative of a Newtown victim will attend. Another group plans to set up across the street and read 4,000 names of victims of gun violence.

The NRA’s opponents are launching a coordinated effort ahead of the 2014 midterm elections. The groups claim they finally have the financial clout to challenge the NRA thanks to Super PACs backed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

"We're simply losing too many loved ones to this epidemic and it's time for change," said Ladd Everitt, the spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. “And if people won't do the right thing, then we are going to work tirelessly to make sure their political careers come to an end.”

Gun control advocates argue that the NRA’s leadership cares more about the gun industry – and profit – than the rights of gun owners.

“I think the NRA leadership is wildly out of step with their own members on the issue of expanding background checks,” Everitt said.

Charles Krupa / AP

A woman carries a girl from their home as a SWAT team searching for a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings enters the building in Watertown, Mass., Friday, That was part of what turned out to be a chaotic week in the U.S.

By Bill Briggs and JoNel Aleccia, NBC News

Americans found their resilience pushed to the limit  this week – and they still don’t know what’s coming next.

When the Boston Police Department tweeted "CAPTURED!!!" Friday night, signaling the apprehension of the second suspect in the bombing blasts that devastated that city's famous marathon, their elation was echoed by people across the nation who clapped, cheered, pinged, Facebooked and tweeted their own relief that, finally, there was an end to the manhunt -- and a hellish span of days.

Even though that siege has passed, the impact of collective crisis fatigue may well linger, experts say.

The U.S. already had endured Monday’s deadly attack, Tuesday’s poison letters and the Wednesday Texas fertilizer plant explosion that has left a still-untold number of people dead, 60 missing and 200 injured. Thursday and Friday saw a late-night shootout and a day-long lockdown that resulted in the death of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and the capture of his 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar. 

“All in all, this has been a tough week,” said President Barack Obama, addressing the nation Friday night. “But we’ve seen the character of our country once more.”

Through its long history, America has weathered its share of the disturbing and the traumatic -- political assassinations, civil and international wars, school massacres, Pearl Harbor, the 9/11 attacks. But few in this generation can cite a single Monday-through-Friday series so jam-packed with frightful, breaking-news bulletins.

“For the first time in a long time, we’re really being challenged now on our home turf,"  said Marleen Wong, a professor and associate dean of the University of Southern California school of social work. She compared the condensed spate of sadness to the 1960s assassinations of President John Kennedy, his brother Robert, and Martin Luther King, though she admits those murders spanned five years.

Sure, it's a lot to take. But when do we hit our bad-news breaking point? 

"If there’s another IED in another city, then we’re really going to have a problem. That’s what concerns me. We might then be crossing some kind of new line," said Bart Rossi, a New Jersey psychologist and author of "The New-New American Life Style: Post September 11, 2001, A Psychologist’s Perspective." "We're talking about some heavy issues here." 

Already, he expects that many Americans are purposely avoiding crowds and staying home, fearful that another mass-casualty is looming. He estimates that in about one month, those same people will resume their normal routines — if all remains relatively quiet.

"If you put a number on our national anxiety it's a 6 or 7 or maybe trending toward an 8," Rossi said. "We’re so frustrated and angry. If something else happens, it might go up to a 9 or a 10, where we’re all just really overwhelmed and overwrought."

That’s true even though the actual risk of harm is very small, even for those who were confined in the immediate area of Watertown, Mass., where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was believed to be trapped for most of Friday.

“The risk is statistically infinitesimal,” said David Ropeik, a Harvard University instructor, author and consultant in risk communication. “And greater emotionally.”

Terrorism is effective precisely because of the emotions it evokes and the stress that triggers a flight-or-fight response that suppresses reason and makes people more instinctive, Ropeik said.

“What terrorism is, is random, violent madness that makes us all feel vulnerable,” he said. “The unpredictable, unpreventable, could-happen-to-anyone-anywhere-anytime, they-are-living-among-us crimes always scare us.”

And it's not like Americans have been dancing lately through a landscape of easy years. The nation has weathered two wars — one still active — and the nasty aftermath of those conflicts, a bad economy, and an adversarial political environment: not traumatic for most yet exhausting and grinding for many. Since last summer, we've mourned dozens lost in the Aurora theater massacre, Superstorm Sandy and the Newtown school slaughter.

"These are times that really reinforce our values and the things we hold dear: the ability to live in peace," Wong said. 

"But on the other hand, I hear messages not just from leaders but also from people, from athletic teams, from runners — from people who have expressed the idea that you can try to hurt Americans, but we’re not afraid, we’re going to respond, we’re going to keep going, we’re going to prevail.

"It really demonstrates the courage of Americans in a way that reminds me of Britain during World War II when the bombs were falling every day in London and their leader, Winston Churchill, stood up and described what the English spirit is all about," Wong said. In similar fashion, some have demonstrated heroic and defiant actions this week — like the Boston hockey crowd belting out the National Anthem on Wednesday night.

"I saw that. It was so wonderful. It made me cry," Wong said. "We will be together, and we’ll get through it."

Related stories:

• 'We got him!' Boston bombing suspect captured alive
• Massive Boston manhunt drags on; anxiety grips city
• Who are the Tsarnaev brothers?

Joe Raedle / Getty Images, file

As the U.S. Senate takes up gun legislation in Washington, DC , Mike Acevedo puts a weapon on display at the National Armory gun store on April 11, 2013 in Pompano Beach, Florida.

A Senate proposal to expand criminal background checks to people who buy firearms at gun shows and online would increase sales at traditional gun stores, many retailers agree — and perhaps even hand licensed dealers a “sweetheart” boon that amounts to “an Obama tax,” according to one industry leader.

The bipartisan plan to broaden background checks — fueled by anger from the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., as well as the gun-control push from the Obama Administration — would “bring a lot of money” to the bricks-and-mortar gun sellers, predicts Andrew Molchan, director of the National Association of Federally Licensed Firearms Dealers, which has about 1,000 members.

“It's kind of like a sweetheart union deal" that would be realized by gun store owners Molchan said. “Most FFL holders already charge for [private gun] transfers, and when it becomes a law they'll charge more." 

If instant criminal background investigations were to be federally mandated for all guns sold via the Internet or at gun shows, that task would fall to retailers. Some gun-store owners argue such a change would increase their workload and their legal risk, thus dampening the positive impact of having more firearms owners visit their establishments. But Molchan contends the tightened rules will ultimately deepen the revenue stream for licensed dealers.

“It's an ‘Obama Tax,’ with all of the money going to the FFL holders: gun stores, pawn shops, sporting goods stores, hardware stores,” he added. “The bottom line for the real world is that a year from now [if the law passes] there will be more gun stores.”

Other firearms sellers and industry analysts don’t envision gun-shop cash registers humming at quite the rapid pace that Molchan forecasts should Congress vote to pass the bill, but there seems to be consensus that profits at those locations will rise to some degree. 

'Treacherous direction'
An earlier plan pitched by the White House to require universal background checks — to cover all private firearms sales — would have generated an even larger payday for gun shops through far heavier foot traffic and even fatter bumps in side sales of ammunition and cleaning supplies, said Garen Wintemute, a firearms researcher and a professor at the University of California, Davis, where he also serves director of the Violence Prevention Research Program.

“The current [Senate] proposal falls well short of a comprehensive background-check policy [so] the benefit to retailers will be smaller than it otherwise will be,” Wintemute said.

Advocates for tougher gun laws have long contended that 30 to 40 percent of criminal firearm acquisitions are made from family and friends and, thus, done off the books, without background checks. However, many gun owners and sellers argue that number was plucked from 1990s research and that actual portion is probably closer to 10 to 13 percent. 

Gun shows typically include many tables occupied by licensed sellers (including retailers) who are required by law to conduct background checks even at those transitional venues. That means the proposed background-check extension would only affect “individuals who are selling their personal collections” at such events, and “that’s not a big factor,” said Larry Hyatt owner of Hyatt Gun Shop in Charlotte, N.C.

“One reason a lot of people want to buy a gun at a gun show from another individual is because they don’t want the government to know. They’re not buying because they are criminals or have criminal intent. They just want to be invisible,” Hyatt said. “That’s a huge issue in the country."

Broadening background checks to include gun shows and Internet transactions will have “a pretty small” impact on stores like Hyatt’s, he said. “There are still going to be people who wouldn’t buy from us anyway because they wouldn’t want a record [of the purchase]. It’s not anything evil. It’s brought about by some of this fear of government and fear of future gun laws. Because people see an inevitable descent [toward gun bans]. They see an overall treacherous direction.”

A mother who lost her 6-year-old son in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School made an emotional plea for national gun-control legislation in an address from the White House.

Francine Wheeler made her appeal in lieu of the president’s weekly address. Her appearance is the only time President Obama has handed the address to anyone other than Vice President Joe Biden since the two first took office. Wheeler was joined by her husband David.

“I have hear people say that the tidal wave of anguish our country felt on 12/14 has receded, but not for us,” Wheeler said. “To us it feels as if it happened just yesterday, and in the four months since we lost our loved ones, thousands of other Americans have died at the end of a gun.”

The address, taped Friday, comes as several Sandy Hook families have mounted an aggressive effort to get a gun-control bill passed by Congress. Wheeler and her husband wrote the remarks after they were approached, the White House said.

“We have to convince the Senate to come together and pass common sense gun responsibility reforms that will make our communities safer and prevent more tragedies like the one we never thought would happen to us,” Wheeler said.

Jessica Hill / AP file

Francine Wheeler, mother of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victim Benjamin Wheeler, cries as she listens to Vice President Joe Biden speak during a gun violence conference in Danbury, Conn., Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013.

Family members of the Newtown victims were present on Capitol Hill Thursday when Senators voted 68-31 to move forward with the process of debating a gun bill that several Republican lawmakers had threatened to filibuster. Several Republican senators have said that the presence of Newtown families helped contribute to the unexpectedly overwhelming vote to move forward with the bill.

Among the more than a dozen relatives in the gallery was Jillian Soto, whose sister was killed at Sandy Hook.

“The tears that we had weren’t tears of joy, but tears of remembering this is happening,” Soto told NBC News shortly after the vote. “We’re here because of what happened to us.”

During her remarks, Wheeler and her husband wore green pins to commemorate the 20 schoolchildren, including their son, and six adults who died in the December shooting. The Wheelers’ older son Nate, a 4th grader at Sandy Hook, survived the shooting.

“Sometimes I close my eyes and all I can remember is that awful day waiting at the Sandy Hook volunteer firehouse for the boy who would never come home – the same firehouse that was home to Ben’s Tiger Scout Den 6,” said Wheeler, choking back tears. “But other times I feel Ben’s presence filling me with courage for what I have to do for him and all the others taken from us so violently and too soon.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

• Newtown passion moves Senate vote on guns
• Newtown Victim's mom to give Obama's weekly address
• Newtown families lobby for gun control

The daughter of Sandy Hook Elementary's slain principal wants to talk to all the senators who threatened to filibuster gun-control legislation, but only one has answered her calls and tweets.

Erica Lafferty's Twitter feed drew lots of attention when she called out the 14 politicians Tuesday, tweeting poignant messages and photos about her mother, Dawn Hochsprung, to their official accounts.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy started retweeting her, and she got hundreds of replies, retweets and mentions from strangers around the country.

So far, only one of the senators -- Ted Cruz of Texas -- has reached out to Lafferty, 27.

"We agreed to disagree," Lafferty said Wednesday. "At least he called me back."

Cruz's office did not provide details about the "personal" chat.

"He is glad they had the chance to speak and it was a respectful conversation," said spokeswoman Catherine Frazier.

Even as senators announced a possible deal on background checks, Lafferty said she still wants to hear from the other 13 on why they would threaten to block debate and voting on legislation sparked by the Newtown, Conn., massacre.

"What are they scared of? My mother wasn't scared in the halls at Sandy Hook," she said. Lafferty would like to see legislation passed that includes universal background checks and an assault weapons ban.

Most of the Senate offices did not immediately respond to an email inquiry about Lafferty's efforts. A spokesman for Sen. Mike Lee of Utah said he couldn't find a record of a call but was willing to "work it out" with her. An aide to Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas said they were working to arrange a meeting.

Lafferty, meanwhile, was taking her campaign from Twitter to the airwaves, appearing on several TV news shows.

"They're not going to shut me up," she said. "I'm loud. I'm opinionated. If people want to hate me because I'm trying to protect their children, let them hate me."

Related:

Senators announce gun deal, raising hope of passage

Biden: Filibuster threat on guns 'embarrassing' to the nation

This story was originally published on Wed Apr 10, 2013 2:10 PM EDT

Charles Krupa / AP

Paul Regish of East Hartford, Conn., holds signs as gun rights advocates enter the legislative office building at the Capitol in Hartford, Conn., on April 3.

Connecticut lawmakers passed a bipartisan package of gun laws that will expand the state’s existing assault weapons ban, impose limits on the size of magazines, and require universal background checks in the state scarred by one of the worst school shootings in American history.

The state's House voted 105-44 in favor of the bill early Thursday. Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has said that he will sign the legislation into law.

State Sen. John McKinney, a Republican who represents the district where the Sandy Hook Elementary school massacre took place, said the bill was far from perfect but a necessary step to ensure the safety of the citizens of the state. 

Moments before the state's Senate bill passed by a vote of 26-10 on Wednesday, McKinney praised the state legislature for coming together in a bispartisan way, a model, he said, for the rest of the country.

"The message we can send if those outside the walls of Connecticut are listening is encourage them to do the same, encourage our elected officials in Washington to put aside the politics and see if they can find some common ground," he said.

Senate President Pro Tempore Donald Williams, a Democrat, opened the debate with a remembrance of the victims of the Dec. 14 Sandy Hook shooting.

“All at once there was a report that as many as 20 children had been killed,” Williams said. “For a few seconds it was hard to breathe. I looked around at my colleagues as we recoiled at the horror of what we were learning.”

Adam Lanza fired off 154 bullets in less than five minutes after entering the school in Newtown with a Bushmaster .223 rifle and several 30-round magazines, investigators have said.

Legislators in Connecticut worked to achieve a bipartisan consensus on the gun-control package. Sen. Majority Leader Martin Looney, a Democrat, told NBC News in March that he hoped for a “broadly supported bipartisan bill,” but said it was “more important that we have a strong bill that meets the need.”

The package put together in Connecticut should serve as an example for national lawmakers, Williams said on Monday.

“There were some who said the ‘Connecticut effect’ would wear off – that it would wear off in Connecticut and it would wear off across the country,” Williams said. “What they didn’t know was that Democrats and Republicans would come together and work to put together the strongest and most comprehensive bill in the United States to fight gun violence, to strengthen the security at our schools, and to provide the mental health services that are necessary.”

Malloy called the package “the toughest law passed anywhere in the country.”

Supporters of stricter gun controls applauded the bill even before it went to a vote.

“I am grateful that the Governor and Connecticut Legislature took a bipartisan path to a strong gun responsibility bill,” Nicole Hockley, whose son Dylan was killed in the Newtown shooting, said in a statement. “I particularly appreciate that the Legislature listened to us and strengthened the provision on large capacity magazine size. “

Sandy Hook Promise thanked the governor and legislators for “passing the strongest gun responsibility legislation in the nation.”

Dozens of protesters who oppose new gun laws were gathered at the Capitol building in Hartford on Wednesday.

“I’m prepared to contribute maybe to a class-action lawsuit, follow this up through the legal system,” gun owner Joe Winslow told NBC Connecticut.

“I want legislators to pass laws that will protect people while not violating the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens,” said Joel Klusek, another anti-gun control protester.

A post on the blog of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, a group that opposes gun control, said that buses would transport protesters from the parking lot of a Cabela’s sporting goods store in East Hartford to the Capitol and back on Wednesday.

“Please help us fill buses to the Capitol in Hartford as we assemble in the gallery above the floor where critical votes will take place,” the post read. “This is a last stand to show our legislators that we will not go away and accept the proposal as our fate.”

“CCDL wishes to thank the NRA for running these buses throughout the day!” the post said.

The state Senate passed the bill just moments after President Barack Obama finished a rally in Denver where he continued his push for Congress to pass a bill requiring background checks for every gun owner.

Next week, the president will travel to Hartford to continue his call for stricter gun control laws as the Senate prepares to take up the bill.

Related:

• Connecticut lawmakers reach deal on 'most comprehensive' gun limits in US
• Investigators: Adam Lanza surrounded by weapons at home; attack took less than 5 minutes
• 'Insane' crowds as customers flood Connecticut gun stores before vote

This story was originally published on Wed Apr 3, 2013 2:36 PM EDT

Wendy Carlson / The New York Times

Vic Benson, owner of The Freedom Shoppe, records the sale of an assault weapon during a sale in anticipation of new gun control measures in New Milford, Conn., April 2, 2013.

Gun stores all over Connecticut were packed Tuesday, one day before lawmakers voted on a sweeping package of laws that banned military-style assault weapons and magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.

“They’re insane. I’ve never seen them so busy before,” shopper Shari Reilly, who bought up several high-capacity magazines, told NBC Connecticut.

Gov. Dannel P. Molloy, a Democrat, said he will sign Thursday what could be “the toughest law passed anywhere in the country."

Connecticut will become the latest of a handful of states – following Colorado and New York – to enact strict new gun-control legislation after the mass shootings in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater and Newtown, Conn., shool. President Obama was scheduled to speak in Colorado on Wednesday to push new federal laws.

Gun manufacturers, ammunition makers and gun store owners in Connecticut have said their businesses will be threatened if a stringent new gun control bill becomes law.

“I feel like we have one foot being pushed out the door,” Mark Malkowski, the owner of AR-15 manufacturer Stag Arms, told NBC Connecticut. He said his company has received nearly two dozen incentive-laden offers to move out of the state.

“They’re really good offers,” Malkowski said. “They are offering tax abatements, they’re offering to build you a factory.”

A Connecticut gun store employee who asked not to be identified told NBC News that his store is selling five times the usual amount. “When your governor is threatening to take away your guns, what do you think is going to happen?” he said.

Bob Montlick, owner of Bob’s Gun Exchange in Darien, told the Connecticut Post he believes people will try to get firearms while they can.

"The only people who are going to comply with any of this are going to be the honest ones," Montlick told the paper. "The bad guys are going to get what they get or steal with anything else."

Hoffman’s Gun Center and Indoor Range in Newington reported brisk business on Tuesday as customers scraped shelves for whatever was left.

“I walked through. I walked out because they didn’t have anything. The girl told me what’s on the shelf is what they have. And I totally believe that,” would-be purchaser Nick Viccione told The Associated Press. The Wallingford resident said people were snatching up ammunition and “anything semi-automatic.”

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association based in Newtown, said that it opposed the proposed legislation in a press release on Tuesday.

“We have a situation where law-abiding citizens will face greater restrictions on their Second Amendment and state constitutional rights while Connecticut’s firearms manufacturers will be forced to pay a price economically for the state’s double-standard of you can build it here, but  not sell it here, public policy formulation,” the NSSF said in the statement.

Frenzied buying at gun stores nationwide has been reported ever since the shooting that left 26 children and educators dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Store owners and customers have cited the threat of new state and federal controls on guns and ammunition as the cause.

Documents obtained by NBC News in January through a Freedom of Information Act request showed that background checks on gun sales in Connecticut rose in the hours following the Newtown shooting. Between 11 a.m. and noon on December 14 – just as news of Adam Lanza’s rampage was breaking – Connecticut gun dealers logged nearly double the number of backgrounds checks performed in the same hour a week before, the FOIA documents show.

Related:

• After Newtown, states slow to embrace new gun laws
• Gun stores running low on weapons as sales surge, owners say
• Guns, paperwork, books flesh out portrait of Newtown killer Adam Lanza