More than 2K people on CT registry of deadly weapons offenders

More than 2,000 Connecticut residents spread across 91 towns and cities are currently listed on the state’s Deadly Weapon Offender Registry, a breakdown obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media shows.

The registry, which is accessible to law enforcement but not the general public, was created in 2013 as part of a large gun-control bill passed following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. People convicted of any of 42 criminal charges involving a deadly weapon are required to register for five years after any prison sentence.

Though the names of those on the registry are protected under state law, a Freedom of Information request produced a townby-town breakdown of where they live. Bridgeport leads all municipalities with 339 people on the registry, followed by Hartford (331), Waterbury (315) and New Haven (278).

In total, the registry includes 2,091 people, up from 1,873 when Hearst Connecticut Media first reported on the registry in January 2020.

Offenses that qualify someone for the Deadly Weapon Offender Registry vary widely, ranging from manslaughter with a firearm to lower-level crimes such as illegal purchase of a handgun.

Those who qualify are required to provide their name, identifiying details such as eye color and skin tone, information about the offenses for which they were convicted and their address.

Since its creation nearly a decade ago, lack of public access to the registry has been a subject of debate, with some open-government advocates arguing that names on the list should be public and others, including the ACLU, countering that releasing them widely would represent an invasion of privacy and undermine efforts to make Connecticut more hospitable to people exiting the legal system.

Meanwhile, police have offered contrasting views on the value of the registry, with some calling it a useful tool and others describing it as redundant with other data already accessible to law enforcement.

In 2020, several key lawmakers said they would be open to changing state law to make the registry public, the way the state’s sex offender registry is, but there has so far been no significant attempt to do so.

Some state lawmakers, including Gov. Ned Lamont, have discussed tightening gun-control laws following last week’s mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas but have provided few details about what specifically they might seek to do.