A proposal to create the first-in-the-nation statewide gun registry cleared a key committee yesterday afternoon by a vote of 23 to 13.
The legislature's judiciary committee endorsed the proposal this afternoon, put forth by Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, to create a gun-offenders registry modelled after a similar database of sex offenders.
Several cities, including New York City, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., have established such requirements for gun offenders, but no state has done so.
Just as those convicted of sex offenses must check in with local authorities, gun offenders would be required to register with local police. But unlike the sex-offender registry, the information on gun offenders would be accessible only to law enforcement officials.
The records would be expunged after four years.
During the debate this afternoon prior to the vote, one lawmaker expressed reservations about the financial burden of creating such a database on municipalities.