Connecticut Eyes Gun Offender Registry
Connecticut is considering legislation that could make it the first state to require convicted gun offenders to register where they live with law enforcement authorities.
Unlike sex-offender registries, which are public information, the proposed gun-offender registry, now under review by the state General Assembly's public safety committee, would be accessible only by law enforcement, says state Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, a Democrat from New Haven who introduced the bill in February.
Looney says his proposal was driven by the fact that gun-related deaths nearly doubled in New Haven, Connecticut's second-largest city, from 12 in 2009 to 22 in 2010. He says the bill has support of senators in urban areas.
Republican Rep. Rosa Rebimbas says the concept is good, but she says she believes the bill would be redundant to existing databases that track criminals.
"If the purpose is to take illegal weapons off the street, then that is what we should be focusing on, not creating a database with the same information," she says.
Looney counters that the registry would not be redundant, because many offenders who are coming out of prison are not subject to oversight or review and are not easily traceable. He says the registry would target those who are near the end of their sentences and those who have had their sentences suspended.
Gun-offender registries exist in four cities and one county in the USA: New York, Washington, Baltimore, Utica, N.Y., and Suffolk County, N.Y., according to Arkadi Gerney, special adviser to the New York City mayor.
Registered gun offenders in New York City are required to give their home addresses and workplaces to authorities, and they receive home visits from the police, Gerney says.
Scott Hoffman, owner of Hoffman's Gun Store in Newington, says that once a person commits a crime with a gun he or she cannot buy another firearm, so the bill would be a waste of time and money.
James Bruno, a National Rifle Association instructor from Branford, near New Haven, says he is skeptical the registry would work, but he doesn't oppose the bill, "as long as it doesn't affect law-abiding citizens who have the right to carry and bear arms." Officials at NRA headquarters did not respond to a request for comment.
Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, a gun-rights lobbying organization, says the bill would "do as much good as any of the other gun-control laws."
"Criminals just don't obey gun laws," he says.
Frank Limon, New Haven's police chief, says many gun crimes are committed by repeat offenders and a registry would prevent some crimes. "End of sentence" criminals are not required to provide information to the criminal justice system, Limon says, and a gun-offender act would compel them to.
The committee has until March 15 to review the bill, which is co-sponsored by state House Democrats Robert Megna and Roland Lemar. If it passes, it would go to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, before going to the state General Assembly, according to Democratic Rep. Stephen Dargan, co-chairman of the public safety committee.