Bronx Leader Wants a Public Registry for Offenders in Gun Crimes

2-20-2013 New York:

New York State already keeps a public registry of sex offenders. Now a Bronx political leader is calling for a statewide registry to be created for people found guilty of another type of crime: gun violence.

Ruben Diaz Jr., the Bronx borough president, unveiled a proposal on Tuesday for an online registry of gun-law offenders that could be viewed and searched by the public. It would keep the names of people convicted of crimes involving guns on the registry for at least 10 years and require them to check in regularly with local police.

“We must also ensure that those who engage in gun violence are not allowed to escape the spotlight,” Mr. Diaz told a packed auditorium full of city and state political leaders during his annual State of the Borough address, at James Monroe High School in the Bronx. “Law-abiding citizens ought to know who among us is responsible for gun violence.”

The proposal would require action by the State Legislature, which already passed a sweeping package of gun restrictions this year, and approval by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who proposed those restrictions. A spokesman for the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, said he would review the proposal, while a governor’s spokesman declined to comment.

“That’s something we should look at,” said State Senator Jeffrey D. Klein, one of the leaders of the Senate, adding that “the sexual predators’ registry has had a chilling effect” on sex criminals.

Tom King, president of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, which represents about 50,000 gun owners, called the proposal “absurd.”

“If you’re going to do that, let’s do the whole thing, let’s put every criminal online,” he said. “Why single out people who have been convicted of gun crimes?”

Nevertheless, Mr. Diaz promoted the idea as a logical extension of the model used to track released sex offenders.

The nation’s first registry of gun offenders was created under a 2006 New York City law, but it is used primarily as a surveillance tool by law enforcement officials and other city agencies and cannot be viewed by the public.

If the gun-crime registry were online, as the state’s sex offender registry is, anyone would be able to view the names and addresses of people convicted of gun-related felonies.

Mr. Diaz’s aides said that the idea for an online registry stemmed from discussions between him and local police officials about ways to combat violence involving handguns and to deter people from committing crimes again. Though the murder rate in the Bronx dropped to the lowest in half a century last year, it remained more than 50 percent higher than the citywide rate, according to Mr. Diaz’s office.

City Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr., the chairman of the council’s Public Safety Committee, who sponsored the legislation creating the city’s current gun registry at the request of the mayor, said that some gun offenders who have violated its requirements have been charged with misdemeanors and sent back to jail. “It’s a great way to keep track of where our most violent people are,” he said. ..Source.. by WINNIE HU