UPDATED: Maynard on Gun Bill: 'I Am Not Sure We Are An Ounce Safer.'

• require universal background checks for purchasers of all firearms
• immediately expand the state's existing ban on assault weapons. The list of banned weapons includes the Bushmaster AR-15 semiautomatic rifle used by Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza
• prohibit the sale and purchase of large-capacity ammunition magazines holding more than 10 rounds – such as the 30-round magazines used by Lanza. (In a compromise, owners of those large-capacity magazines would not be required to turn them in, although their use would be restricted and they would have to be registered with the state by Jan. 1, 2014. Likewise, people who already own semiautomatic rifles defined as assault weapons could keep them if they submit to new registration procedures.)
• require an eligibility certificate beginning Oct. 1 for all purchases of ammunition and long guns To obtain certification to buy ammunition, purchasers would have to pass a federal criminal background check.
• create a dangerous weapon offender registry
• expand penalties for illegal gun trafficking

State Rep. Diana Urban, who represents Stonington and North Stonington, voted in favor. State Sen. Andrew Maynard, who represents Stonington in his district, voted against.

Thursday morning, Maynard said he ultimately decided to vote against the bill because he found it deeply flawed and not well thought-out.

"At the end of this whole long discussion and review, seeing how little positive benefit was coming out of it and how many new and frankly unworkable aspects there were in the bill, I just couldn’t" vote in favor, Maynard said. "There was too little positive, too much bullshit and a fair amount of negative. The school mandates will be punishing on our communities. It will cost many millions of dollars to the state. And I am not sure we are an ounce safer."

Urban said the new law is not a cure-all, but it helps.

"I know that we will never 100 percent be able to solve this," Urban said Thursday morning. "I get it that all these gun laws will not stop another Sandy Hook or Columbine. We know that. We know that there are things that are out of  our control."

Urban said that Wednesday, the day the bill was debated in the House and Senate, was her son's 31st birthday.

"I had 25 more years with him than those moms and dads had in Sandy Hook with their kids," she said. "And I think about that. And I think about that with our inner city kids. It’s a big problem. You think about your child coming home to you from school riddled with bullets – how do you make policy about that?"

She said that she needed to approach the proposals not as a mother, but as an economist, her 'other' job:

"I teach economics, so I step back. I think, is there something we can do at the margin? When I say that – for example, we make you wear a seat belt – we don’t take away your car. But we make you wear a seat belt, and it makes you safer.Same with bike helmets. It makes you safer. We don’t take away your bike. That’s how I look at this. I truly believe we have made our families and children a little bit safer. When I think about those kids that got by him because the weapon jammed. Those 6 or 7 kids because the weapon jammed and he was trying to reload. Now we know someone won’t have a 30-clip magazine. He would have a 10-clip magazine. So maybe 3 more kids would get by."

Maynard said the 150-page bill was delivered to legislators at 10 Wednesday morning.

"You are promised and assured the bill does everything it was advertised to do and then you find out after the vote all the mistaken language init because it was a rush job. The reporting requirements are unconstitutional, the gun offender registry is a sham, various other provisions on who has to do what have not been thought out. How do you register your magazines? They don’t have serial numbers. The school security portion is a huge mandate on our municipalities. It requires a safety committee for every school, and each has to submit a report to the state. In Stonington, how many is that?"

Urban said there is considerably more work to be done, particularly in the area of mental health services in the state.

"We moved the ball forward but we did not completely solve this problem," she said, "we never will. And there is more to do. We have bills for mental health in my committee that are great – but there is more we can do. We are focused on that."

Urban said she understands that law-abiding citizens are affected by these changes.

"I know there are great guys in my district who hunt and who are gun enthusiasts. I know this is a pain for them and they have to go the extra mile," she said. "I get it. But there are things I have to do too. We all do. In society, there are rules  — sometimes we don’t like them. I know we put the extra burden on them but I believe this will make our families and our children a little bit safer. If they have to take that extra burden I thank them for doing it."