Politics & Government

Connecticut Board Overturns Hundreds of Gun Permit Denials

Nearly two-thirds of those denied gun permits by local police eventually get approved by the state's Board of Firearm Permit Examiners.

By Eileen McNamara

Hundreds of people who get rejected for gun permits by local police each year, including applicants with prior arrests for violent crimes, eventually get the permits from a state appeals board. 

In fact, in some cases the board helps those appealing a local permit denial in how to get the decision overturned at the state level, according to a story this weekend in the Hartford Courant.

The board's decisions mean there are a lot of people in Connecticut who own guns that local police feel are unfit to have them.

While local police feel the board is too lenient in many of the appeals cases, the board's chairman told the Courant that the panel often overturns permit rejections because local police don't follow the application process closely enough.

"When the chiefs follow the law," Joseph Corradino told the newspaper, "they win."


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