Bill proposes pubicizing gun owners' names

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HARTFORD, Conn., Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Connecticut lawmakers will soon be considering a bill that would make the names and addresses of gun owners in the state public information.

Connecticut's General Assembly session is set to begin Wednesday and lawmakers will take up a number of gun control bills, prompted by the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, during which 20 students and six educators died, The Hartford Courant reported.

One of such bill would make the names and addresses of handgun permit holders public under Connecticut's Freedom of Information Act,

"Most things are FOI-able now," Rep. Stephen D. Dargan, who introduced the bill, said in an interview Thursday. "Go to the local city clerk's office and you can find out where Steve Dargan owns property. I don't know why a responsible gun owner is worried about whether a permit for a revolver is FOI-able or not."

Opponents of Dargan's bill say criminals will use the bill to target both gun owners -- to steal their guns -- and non-gun owners -- knowing their homes are unprotected.

"It's a tool for criminals," said Robert Crook, executive director and lobbyist for the 35,000-member Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen. "You don't see the pistol permit holders in the newspapers. They just don't break the law, normally.

"I don't have a solution, but I don't think releasing the names of handgun owners will have an effect ... except to give some people, and I mean criminals, an option."