City councilor aims for gun offender registry
Offering the latest in a flurry of ideas to reverse Boston's spike in gun violence, City Councilor Robert Consalvo yesterday held a hearing to discuss a possible gun offender registry similar to the state sex offender registry.
The gun registry would let residents find out if they are living near someone who has been convicted of a gun crime.
''Someone who's been convicted of multiple gun offenses is just as dangerous to me and my family as a sex offender," Consalvo said in an interview. ''As a father of two, the same way I want to know where a sex predator lives in my community, you better believe I want to know where a violent gun offender lives. . .Information would empower community groups and residents to better address violence in our neighborhoods."
Last year's 341 shootings were the most in Boston since 1995 and homicides hit a 10-year high of 75. In recent months, city officials have proposed several ideas to quell the surge in shootings, which are up by 64 percent this year through March 9, compared with the same period last year. The proposals range from installing a gunshot acoustic detection system for tracking gunfire to requiring more repeat gun and gang offenders to wear electronic monitoring bracelets.
Consalvo said he realizes there are many hurdles to starting a gun offender registry, but said he believes the idea is worth pursuing. A Police Department review found that of 597 people arrested last year on charges of illegal possession of a firearm, nearly one-third had one or more prior arrests and only 13 percent were in custody by mid-January as a result of their 2005 firearms charges.
Brandyn Keating, the executive director of the Criminal Justice Policy Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group for reform of laws on how much information about offenders is made public, said she believes the idea is problematic.
''If you're thinking about a gun offender trying to reintegrate and now they're on some kind of list, how would it be used?" Keating said. ''To deny them employment and housing?. . .I would be concerned this sort of a registry would have the opposite effect than the one desired. It could be used to marginalize people and keep them on the outskirts of society."
Suzanne Smalley can be reached at ssmalley@globe.com. 