Neil Heslin: Newtown Father Gets Attacked By Gun Rights Group; Connecticut Carry Releases Rap Sheet

A Connecticut gun rights group has it in for a grieving Newtown father.

Connecticut Carry published the rap sheet of Neil Heslin, whose son died in the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14. Heslin, who testified before Congress and the state Legislature for tougher gun laws, has been arrested for issuing bad checks and driving under the influence.

“So often we find that the strongest critics of the right to bear arms are those people who cannot be trusted with firearms themselves,” Connecticut Carry said in a press release.

The group claims that Heslin’s criminal history, which prevents him from purchasing guns, makes him the “poster boy” of how “ineffective background checks are.”

Most of Heslin’s arrests took place in 1997, 2001 and 2002. Three of them involve writing bad checks – the largest for $2,424, according to the News Times of Danbury. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

His most recent arrest on Aug. 8, 2012, was for issuing a bad check. The News Times describes Heslin’s troubled past as a “picture of a man struggling with his business finances and stiffing his creditors.”

On Wednesday, Heslin was offered a plea deal from a state Superior Court judge to resolve charges against him. Heslin would have to serve 30 days in jail in exchange for a guilty plea. He has a July 9 deadline to decide whether to accept or not.

In January, when parents of children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary testified at hearing in Hartford, Heslin said he was "not in favor of banning guns and weapons," but wants stricter gun laws that ban so-called assault weapons and high-capacity magazine clips, USA Today reports.

Heslin said he "was raised with firearms, hunting and skeet shooting," and to use them responsibly – "not to kill my mother while she was sleeping."