10 years, 2,056 deaths: What now?
Hearst Connecticut Media series paves way for conversations on curbing gun violence, suicides
Reacting to a series of Hearst Connecticut Media stories chronicling 10 years of gun deaths, lawmakers said the state should take concrete steps to reduce gun violence and suicide in Connecticut.
Ideas include streamlining the process of taking guns from troubled individuals, limiting firearm purchases to one a month and bolstering inner city programs designed to reduce violence and the lure of gangs.
“The article forced some introspection on my part,” said state Sen. Will Haskell, D-Westport, referring to the Hearst series.
“We tend to frame gun violence as school shootings,” Haskell said. “We don’t know the names of those who pass away in our nearby communities.”
Haskell added, “I hope to be better on that. We know gun violence is the second leading cause of death for children and teens. I’m guilty of forgetting the huge problem of death by suicide.”
The state’s gun deaths were highlighted by a Hearst investigation that
“It’s time to follow suit with what other states have done. ... If handguns are purchased in bulk, they are 64 percent more likely to be sold on the black market.”
State Sen. Will Haskell, D-Westport
found 2,056 people in Connecticut died from gunshots between 2010 and August 2020.
Using data from the state medical examiner’s office, Hearst found that while the overall number of people killed by guns was mostly steady year to year, Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven were hot spots for murder, especially among those in their late teens and early 20s.
Perhaps more surprising, the investigation found that suicides accounted for 58 percent of gun deaths and suicides by gun became more prevalent as residents aged — more than 90 percent of the gun deaths among those in their 70s and 80s were suicides.
Overall, 1,850 males died of gunshots statewide compared to 205 females. There were 1,183 suicides, 850 homicides, 14 undetermined deaths and 6 accidental deaths. For two deaths, causes were still pending.
‘Multi-layered problem’
Over the last decade, 204 people died from gunfire in Hartford; 165 in Bridgeport and 162 in New Haven, according to the medical examiner’s data.
The data shows that 81 percent of the 18- and 19-year-olds who died from a gunshot were homicide victims, and 74 percent were in their 20s. The numbers also show that statewide Black and Hispanic residents are disproportionately affected by deadly gun violence, which is in line with national trends for urban centers.
Still, Connecticut overall is consistently ranked fifth or sixth lowest nationally in terms of gun deaths per 100,000 residents, according to statistics compiled by the federal Centers for Disease Control.
Jeremy Stein, executive director of CT Against Gun Violence, said the solution to the gun deaths in the inner cities lies in bolstering — and properly funding — efforts already underway.
“The state has to start spending some money on preventative measures,” Stein said. “We don’t have a [state] office like Gun Violence Prevention. The only program we fund is Project Longevity and it’s underfunded.”
Project Longevity is a community and police initiative to reduce violence in New Haven, Bridgeport and Hartford by turning neighborhoods away from violence and offering addiction and mental health services, educational opportunities, affordable housing and employment.
“We want to create a grant source at the state level for evidence-based programs and decision-making involving different agencies,” Stein said.
He said a unified effort is needed between state and local governments and the agencies they support, along with a real world way of ranking the effectiveness of various programs.
State Rep. Steven Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport and co-chairman of the judiciary committee, said it’s not easy to reduce or eliminate gun deaths.
“This is a very complex issue and one that my constituents face on a daily basis,” Stafstrom said. “A lot of it’s the easy access to illegal guns on our streets. Most are brought in from out of state.”
Stafstrom noted there is not much Connecticut can do about interstate transportation without action from Congress to strengthen background checks and restrict the sale and distribution of guns.
“The bigger issue remains — why do people turn to criminal activity?” Stafstrom said. “Some of it is we do a terrible job of providing equal access to housing, education and employment. It’s a multi-layered problem.”
“There is a push to look at zoning regulations and how restrictive it is and how we congregate poverty in certain neighborhoods,” Stafstrom added.
Mike Lawlor, a University of New Haven criminal justice professor, said Connecticut already has the most comprehensive gun control in the nation.
Following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings that claimed the lives of 26 children and adults, lawmakers banned assault weapons, high capacity magazines and enacted other sweeping reforms.
“There are way more guns in the country than responsible gun owners,” Lawlor said. “The laws should narrow that gap and I think that’s what our laws do.”
Lawlor said authorities need to figure out where the guns are coming from and stop the flow.
Purchase limits
Haskell is backing a bill that that would limit gun sales to one weapon per month. California, New Jersey and Maryland already have a similar law on the books.
The bill was raised this year but failed to advance after COVID-19 shut down most of the legislative session.
“They don’t need to buy more than 12 guns in 12 months,” Haskell said. “We know if someone is buying five, 10 or 30 handguns they are likely to sell them in a black market.”
Haskell said most guns used in a crime come from the black market.
“It’s time to follow suit with what other states have done,” Haskell said. “If handguns are purchased in bulk, they are 64 percent more likely to be sold on the black market.”
Larry Keane, senior vice president for government relations for the National Shooting Sports Foundation based in Newtown, said the bill won’t work and worried that it restricts constitutional rights.
“We don’t believe one gun a month laws have an impact on restricting straw purchases or the illegal black market,” Keane noted.
“Traffickers are going to make purchases from more than one dealer and illegally purchase a firearm,” Keane said. “It doesn’t really matter.”
Under federal law, Keane noted that dealers must report sales of one or more handguns in a week to a single person.
But even with that regulation, Keane said most guns used in a crime were not purchased at a retail store. They tend to be older guns, and most are stolen, he said.
Red flag
An initiative intended to stem suicide by gun centers on “updating” the state’s so-called “Red Flag” law, which allows family members, guardians and others to seek court permission to remove guns from a household.
The Hearst investigation found that among state residents who died from gunfire over the last decade, 73 percent of those in their 40s died by suicide; 82 percent of those in their 50s; 90 percent of those in their 60s and 70s; and 95 percent of those in their 80s.
State law allows authorities to take guns away from individuals at risk for suicide, domestic violence or deemed a danger to themselves or others. But invoking the law requires support from two police officers and a state’s attorney before a request for a warrant to remove guns can be brought to a court.
Stafstrom said in 2019 he raised a new Red Flag bill that allows family members, physicians and others to directly petition a court for a warrant without the involvement of law enforcement.
He said removing police would encourage more families to take action. Police would still be required to execute the warrant and remove guns from a home, he noted.
The person losing guns could request their return every 180 days. The current law mandates removal for up to a year.
Stafstrom said Hearst’s reporting highlights the need to pass the bill. “The problem with a firearm is it’s very easy to kill yourself and not a lot of margin for error,” he said.
The point of changing the law is to place the decision and process in the hands of those who best know what needs to be done, he said.
“The key change is it allows a family member or a physician who may have better knowledge to get a warrant to remove the firearms from the house,” Stafstrom said.
“If someone lost a job or is just going through a tough time they can reapply after 180 days,” Stafstrom said. “It provides much more flexibility.”
State Rep. Stephen Meskers, D-Greenwich and a member of the Legislature’s aging committee, said the state has an obligation to curtail suicides, including those of older residents.
“I want to know how we dig into the data to find out the what the causality is,” Meskers said.
“Do we have data on suicides from 40 on?” Meskers said. “Who should be collecting it and figuring out causality? On the raw data, I can’t tell. If it’s suicide because of illness, how do we deal with it? If it’s depression, how can you counteract that?”