The Newtown elementary school shootings have gripped Connecticut as no other crime, enduring as constant front page news.

On the lawns of the state Capitol, chants ring out from gun-control activists "Pass the law" — when there is no law in sight. And while lawmakers meet to consider gun safety and mental health legislation, Governor Dannel Malloy is impatiently shouldering forward his own legislative proposals, with predictions they could come to a vote in mid-March.