Edward Peruta
Regular Member
Courant.com
Connecticut Gun Permits Are Confidential, But Should They Be?
Gun Reform of 1994 Removed Owners' Names from Public Records
Susan Campbell September 1, 2010
In January, Allan Minter began tracking gun crimes that involved multiple victims. He'd served on a task force on gangs in his north Florida town, and was intrigued by what he thought he might find.
The Hartford Distributors shooting, Connecticut's worst mass killing, was No. 46. Upon hearing news of the Manchester fatalities last month, Minter began scouring the Web and local newspapers for details about the shooter, Omar S. Thornton.
The vast majority of the crimes he's chronicling occur during contentious custody cases, or, as with Thornton, at a work site. On Aug. 3, Thornton agreed to resign after being shown a video of him stealing alcohol. Police said he then retrieved two 9mm handguns and began firing. When the smoke cleared, nine people — including Thornton — were dead.
Thornton's record was clean, said Minter, "up until he pulled the trigger."
So why did this happen? Minter is looking for answers, but news coverage has waned, and now Minter is filling in the blanks from afar. Namely: Did Thornton go to pistol ranges? If so, did he go more frequently right before the mayhem?
Oddly, here's something Minter can't confirm: Did Thornton have a permit for his guns? Connecticut law keeps confidential the names and addresses of people issued an eligilibility certificate for a pistol or revolver. Under some circumstances, the information can be released only to law enforcement officials (as it appears to have been in Thornton's case), or the public safety commissioner, or mental health and addiction services commissioner.
Lt. J. Paul Vance, state police spokesman, confirmed that pistol permits are not public record. "I have had, in divorce proceedings, someone call up and say, 'Does my soon-to-be-ex have a pistol permit?' and we cannot confirm that," he said.
Rep. Stephen D. Dargan, D-West Haven, co-chairman of the legislative public safety and security committee, says this — and other aspects of Aug. 3 — will be discussed during the next legislative session. The conversation bubbled up recently in New York, when a website, using public records from the state police, published a list of people holding pistol permits in that state. An assemblyman running for state senator cried foul, and the website has been fighting back.
Connecticut's ban on making such information public came as part of a sweeping gun reform law in 1994. While making the permit process more stringent, the law removed from the public record information about people who made it through the process. Talk at the time centered on safety and privacy, with this odd logic: If the particulars of permit-holders were made public, their homes would be targets for robbers, although one would think knowledge that a neighbor has a gun or guns would make that neighbor's house a less attractive option for a break-in.
Meanwhile, Minter is still collecting. He's working his way toward No. 60, but he acknowledged he might have missed some.
Courant staff writer and columnist Susan Campbell can be reached at scampbell@courant.com.
Connecticut Gun Permits Are Confidential, But Should They Be?
Gun Reform of 1994 Removed Owners' Names from Public Records
Susan Campbell September 1, 2010
In January, Allan Minter began tracking gun crimes that involved multiple victims. He'd served on a task force on gangs in his north Florida town, and was intrigued by what he thought he might find.
The Hartford Distributors shooting, Connecticut's worst mass killing, was No. 46. Upon hearing news of the Manchester fatalities last month, Minter began scouring the Web and local newspapers for details about the shooter, Omar S. Thornton.
The vast majority of the crimes he's chronicling occur during contentious custody cases, or, as with Thornton, at a work site. On Aug. 3, Thornton agreed to resign after being shown a video of him stealing alcohol. Police said he then retrieved two 9mm handguns and began firing. When the smoke cleared, nine people — including Thornton — were dead.
Thornton's record was clean, said Minter, "up until he pulled the trigger."
So why did this happen? Minter is looking for answers, but news coverage has waned, and now Minter is filling in the blanks from afar. Namely: Did Thornton go to pistol ranges? If so, did he go more frequently right before the mayhem?
Oddly, here's something Minter can't confirm: Did Thornton have a permit for his guns? Connecticut law keeps confidential the names and addresses of people issued an eligilibility certificate for a pistol or revolver. Under some circumstances, the information can be released only to law enforcement officials (as it appears to have been in Thornton's case), or the public safety commissioner, or mental health and addiction services commissioner.
Lt. J. Paul Vance, state police spokesman, confirmed that pistol permits are not public record. "I have had, in divorce proceedings, someone call up and say, 'Does my soon-to-be-ex have a pistol permit?' and we cannot confirm that," he said.
Rep. Stephen D. Dargan, D-West Haven, co-chairman of the legislative public safety and security committee, says this — and other aspects of Aug. 3 — will be discussed during the next legislative session. The conversation bubbled up recently in New York, when a website, using public records from the state police, published a list of people holding pistol permits in that state. An assemblyman running for state senator cried foul, and the website has been fighting back.
Connecticut's ban on making such information public came as part of a sweeping gun reform law in 1994. While making the permit process more stringent, the law removed from the public record information about people who made it through the process. Talk at the time centered on safety and privacy, with this odd logic: If the particulars of permit-holders were made public, their homes would be targets for robbers, although one would think knowledge that a neighbor has a gun or guns would make that neighbor's house a less attractive option for a break-in.
Meanwhile, Minter is still collecting. He's working his way toward No. 60, but he acknowledged he might have missed some.
Courant staff writer and columnist Susan Campbell can be reached at scampbell@courant.com.
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