Connecticut's largest gun rights group says more laws, including universal background checks, are not the answer to the pattern of mass shootings and gun violence.

There are almost 270,000 gun owners in Connecticut, and the Connecticut Citizens Defense League says many gun owners feel like they're being made into scapegoats following last week’s two mass shootings.

In a Connecticut Power & Politics interview, Holly Sullivan, a board member at CCDL, says Connecticut's ban on high-capacity magazines hurts law-abiding gun owners' ability to protect themselves. Sullivan also believes nationwide universal background checks, like Connecticut already has, are unnecessary.

"Federally, there's a NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System), and that's been the case since the ‘90s,” she says. “To say that other states are not completing background checks is simply false."

However, that does not include private gun sales. Sullivan pushed back against what’s known as the gun show loophole.

"It cannot include private sales, so it is certainly possible for there to be a private transfer of guns.  But to call it a ‘gun show loophole’ – let’s be clear about what happens at a gun show. A vendor at a gun show is still completing that NICS check."

Critics say unlicensed private sellers can, and do, sell firearms at gun shows. Connecticut police departments say many of those guns end up on the streets.