Take action to halt flow of illegal guns

4/12/07
Connecticut's cities are on the rebound, but public safety remains a top concern. No one is going to spend time downtown after dark if security is a question.
And after years of decline, homicide rates are back on the rise, especially in cities. The deadliest weapon, the handgun, is easily available for almost anyone looking to acquire one. The state must do everything it can to keep illegal guns off the streets and keep people safe.
Bridgeport Mayor John M. Fabrizi was in Hartford this week asking the Legislature to close a loophole in gun policy. Under current law, gun owners are not required to report lost or stolen weapons to police, making it easier for unauthorized firearms to make it to the streets. Changing that requirement won't end gun violence, but it's a start — and anything that could make life safer should be pursued.
If just a few more of the hundreds of lost and stolen handguns every year were quickly reported to police and tracked down, maybe guns wouldn't be overflowing our cities. And with gun violence up 78 percent in the state since 2002, the need to act is more pressing than ever.
It's not an easy fight, as the backers of absolute rights for gun-owners are powerful and well-financed. But this is not about taking away anyone's legal firearms, or about limiting the right to legally acquire a deadly weapon. It's about keeping criminal violence off our streets as much as possible — a goal that should have widespread support.
And the problem is not going to solve itself. When violent crime decreased through the 1990s and into the new century, people were comfortable assuming that the trend would continue, and that gun violence would be an ever-diminishing footnote in our lives. But it hasn't turned out that way. The tides have turned back, and unless we act, the carnage will only get worse.
For Bridgeport, it's a matter of continuing a citywide rebirth, with new life downtown potentially imperiled by safety concerns. But the problem extends into the suburbs and into rural areas. As Fairfield state Rep. Kim Fawcett noted during Fabrizi's testimony, "a wall does not exist between our cities and their surrounding towns." Safety matters to everyone, and illegal guns are a public safety issue. It's up to the Legislature to take decisive action.