Legislature protects 'straw buyers,' Congress tries to shield rogue dealers.

July 16, 2006

In one month in Hartford this year, 20 people were shot, three of them fatally. In New Haven, 10 people were killed in the first six months of the year, including a 13-year-old girl shot in June.

Instead of trying to stop this largely gun-fueled violence at its source, our legislators have made law enforcement's task of drying up the illegal gun market even harder.

State lawmakers this year rejected legislation that would have required gun owners to report the loss or theft of a gun. A major source of guns used in crimes are owners who trade the firearms for drugs. Now, when a gun used in a crime is traced back to what are called "straw buyers," they can simply claim ignorance about a gun's location and continue putting guns out on the street.

Thanks to appropriations measures by Congress, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms can no longer release such basic information as the number of dealers who sold guns used in crimes. In 2002, the last year in which the information was available, 57 percent of crime guns were traced back to just 1.2 percent of the nation's federally licensed dealers.

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The Connecticut Association of Chiefs of Police is among the law enforcement groups that oppose the legislation.

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