New Canaan Police Suspend Issuing Temporary Pistol Permits

An announcement from New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski:

The New Canaan Police Department is suspending the issuance of Temporary State Pistol Permits due to a flaw in the application process, which compromises public safety — specifically, how the process relates to mental health screening. This process is outlined in Connecticut Public Act 13-3, sections 8, 10-11; C.G.S. Sec. 29-28.

In Connecticut, when an individual applies for a 60 day temporary state pistol permit to carry pistols and revolvers (temporary state permit) at their city/town, the applicant is fingerprinted, and a series of state, as well as federal databases are searched to ensure the applicant is not prohibited from being issued a pistol permit/possessing a firearm. See C.G.S. Sec. 29-28.

We recently confirmed that the temporary state permit issuing authority (local police chief/first selectmen) does not have access to the State’s Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services (DMHAS) database, Voluntary Admission Tracking System (VATS), which determines the applicant’s mental health history.

Certain mental health histories prohibit the issuance of a pistol permit/possession of a firearm. See C.G.S. Sec. 29-28.; P.A. 13-3, Sec. 8.

Presently, the local authority relies upon the applicant to voluntarily disclose on the pistol permit/eligibility certificate application (DPS 799-C), mental health conditions which would prohibit the issuance of a temporary state permit. While this disclosure is helpful, access to the DMHAS database is critical.

Consequently, since local issuing authorities do not have access to the DMHAS database, temporary state permits may be issued to applicants that have mental health histories, which prohibit the individual from being issued a temporary state permit/carrying/possessing a firearm.

Clearly, this is problematic and must be corrected. Critical mental health information must be made available to the local authority before the temporary state permit is issued.

It is critical that the temporary state permit issuing authority have access to alldatabases when conducting background checks prior to issuing temporary state permits.

While we support an individual’s rights under the Second Amendment to the Constitution, it is also our responsibility to ensure that we are issuing pistol permits to responsible, capable and qualified applicants.

We are gravely concerned about the gun violence that has occurred in our state as the direct result of individuals possessing firearms that are mentally ill. As such, until the local authority is provided access to the VATS database, the New Canaan Police Department will suspend issuing temporary state permits; this is a very real public safety issue.

On December 23, 2014, we wrote to Governor Malloy to notify him about this flaw. (See the attached letter.)

Considering, Governor Malloy’s commitment to public safety and efforts to drive down gun violence in our state we are confident the Governor will identify and implement a solution, which allows us to resume the issuance of pistol permits.

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