In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
System For Tracing Guns Is Flawed
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
System For Tracing Guns Is Flawed Associated Press October 08, 2001 NEW HAVEN Conn. (AP)- A statewide system to keep track of where criminals get their guns has turned up a few bugs and problems. "The numbers were uneven and it suggests someone's not tracing them," said Glastonbury Police Chief Thomas Sweeney. "It's hard to tell if some of the smaller departments are tracing every gun and keeping accurate records. Some may not."Sweeney is chairman of the Statewide Weapons Trafficking Task Force's policy board. Last week he set a letter to police chiefs last week asking them to double check their counts of how many weapons they confiscated and ran history checks on.A law approved in 1998 requires Connecticut police department to do a background check on the guns they confiscate. The aim of the legislation was to find out how guns were getting into the hands of criminals and eventually stop the flow.In 1999, police chiefs across the state formed a policy board to monitor how well the law was being enforced.State police last week released a review of the number of background checks police ran between Oct. 1, 1999 and Aug. 31, 2001. The review showed some inconsistencies.Smaller towns, such as East Haven, were running checks on far more guns than larger cities where more gun trafficking is likely. East Haven is credited with tracking 382 guns, the most in the state."We attribute our high number to accurate record keeping," said East Haven police spokesman Sgt. Robert Flodquist. "I would be surprised if it turned out we took in more guns than the larger cities."Some large cities, like New Haven, where only one gun was traced by state police, instead use the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to run history checks.The one thing police can conclude from reviewing the numbers is that weapons trafficking is at least down from what it was five years ago.Sweeney said the task force expects to receive and review a new count within six months.AP-ES-10-08-01 0806EDT http://www.ctnow.com/scripts/editorial.dll?bfromind=1617&eeid=5406073&eetype=article&render=y&ck=&ver=3.0