Connecticut Senate OKs Assault-Weapons Ban : Gun control: Vote in the home of large firearms firms has huge symbolic value, backers say.

Fresh from recent victories in New Jersey and Virginia, the gun control lobby appears to be headed toward another breakthrough in a most unlikely place: Connecticut, a state that since the Revolutionary War has supplied the nation with guns.

On Thursday, the state Senate voted 19 to 18, with the lieutenant governor casting the tie-breaking vote, in favor of a bill that would ban the sale of all assault weapons except the Colt Sporter, which is manufactured here. Action by the 36-member Senate virtually guaranteed that an assault weapons ban will be enacted into law in Connecticut.

Proponents of the bill said the Connecticut ban would have symbolic as well as real importance in the national gun control debate because this state has been responsible for manufacturing some of the country’s most popular guns: the Colt revolver, the Remington rifle and the Winchester rifle.

“Since the Revolution, this state has been the arsenal for democracy,” said Senate President Pro Tem John B. Larson.

By voting 20 to 16 to exempt the Sporter from the bill, the Senate chose to protect the state government’s own financial interest and some 1,000 jobs at the bankrupt gun factory.

In 1990, the state invested $25 million in Colt in a desperate attempt to keep one of the state’s most prestigious manufacturers from going belly up.

Nevertheless, gun control proponents vowed to strip the exemption for the Sporter from the bill when it comes before the House.

The House is known to be more favorable to the bill, which Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. has pledged to sign into law.

Many times in the past, the Connecticut Legislature has rejected a ban on assault weapons. But the measure gained new life this year as a result of what political analysts see as a dramatic change-of-heart among rural and suburban voters, who are beginning to fear gun violence nearly as much as do inner-city residents.

Larry J. Sabato, political scientist at the University of Virginia, said the spreading fear of guns was responsible for the recent enactment of gun control laws in New Jersey and Virginia, as well as for the developments in Connecticut.

“People outside of the cities see violence spilling over into their communities, and they are saying to the politicians: ‘Do something,’ ” Sabato observed. “The Silent Majority, which is usually conservative, has been activated on behalf of gun control.”

The Connecticut action follows recent successes by the gun control lobby in Virginia, which restricted the sale of handguns to one a month, and in New Jersey, which rejected an effort to overturn a ban on the sale and possession of some semiautomatic weapons. These votes were seen as setbacks for the potent gun lobby, led by the National Rifle Assn.

David Weaver, lobbyist for Handgun Control Inc., said his organization sees its recent victories as steps on the way to a strict national gun control law.

But Patrick M. Squire, lobbyist for Colt, said the impact of the NRA setbacks and the support for stricter gun control has been exaggerated in the media. On the contrary, he said, “the fear of being without a gun is increasing.”

Squire argued that because the police are often unable to protect individuals and businesses, Americans need assault weapons to protect their property, just as many shop owners in Los Angeles did during the riots.