Connecticut among states with lowest rate of gun deaths

Connecticut has the fifth lowest gun death rate in the nation, according to a new analysis by the Violence Policy Center. Click through to see the states with the highest and lowest gun death rates. Connecticut has the fifth lowest gun death rate in the nation, according to a new analysis by the Violence Policy Center. Click through to see the states with the highest and lowest gun death rates. Photo: M. Spencer Green, Associated Press Photo: M. Spencer Green, Associated Press Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close Connecticut among states with lowest rate of gun deaths 1 / 23 Back to Gallery

DANBURY — While gun deaths have increased by 17 percent in the nation during the past decade, Connecticut is among a handful of states that has seen the rate of gun deaths decline.

That’s according to information released Wednesday by the Violence Policy Center, a national organization working to end gun violence. The center’s report ranked Connecticut as having the fifth lowest gun death rates in 2016.

“Connecticut in many ways serves as a model for the rest of the nation,” said Kristen Rand, the legislative director for the center. “They’ve always had very strong gun laws and purchasing laws and became a leader in the nation after the Sandy Hook massacre.”

While Alaska — one of the states with the highest increase in gun death rates — saw an increase of more than 60 percent in the past decade, Connecticut has seen a decline in the gun death rate of 2.2 percent.

State Rep. Robert Godfrey, D-Danbury, said he became involved with gun control issues during his first year in the Legislature in 1989.

Lawmakers were prompted into action then when six children were killed at the hands of other children with their parents’ guns. At the time, the state passed the Kids and Guns Act, which for the first time made gun owners liable for crimes committed with their weapons if not stored properly.

“We haven’t had a summer like that since,” Godfrey said.

Godfrey also served on the Bipartisan Task Force on Gun Violence Prevention and Child Safety created by the Legislature shortly after the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, where 26 children and school staffers were killed. A variety of measures, including a ban on high capacity magazines, were recommended by the task force and ultimately became law.

Mike Bazinet, the public affairs director for the Newtown-based National Shooting Sports Foundation, the 13,000-member trade association for the firearms industry, declined to comment on the Violence Policy Center’s report Wednesday because he had yet to view its methodology.

The report indicated states with the highest firearm ownership rates — more than 56 percent of homes in Alaska have a gun — had a high rate of gun deaths, while states like Connecticut with stricter gun laws and a lower ownership rate — about 22 percent in the Nutmeg state — had the lowest death rates.

“After Sandy Hook the Connecticut legislature acted quickly and enacted a variety of new gun control measures,” Rand said. “It was the kind of activity that we didn’t see happen at the federal level or in most other states.”

California, New York and Rhode Island also showed a decline in the gun death rate in the center’s report, while states like Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi saw some of the largest increases.

dperrefort@newstimes.com