http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/hc-guns1125.artnov25,0,167871.story coll=hc%2D

URL is goig to wrap, so here’s the entire story….

First-Time Gun Permits, Sales On Rise In State
State Police: Terrorism Fears Fuel Increase

November 25, 2002
Associated Press

MERIDEN — First-time gun permits and gun sales in Connecticut both rose in the first 10 months of 2002 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to state police.

Connecticut issued 5,615 new gun permits and 15,489 renewals through October 2002. In the same 10-month period in 2001, the state processed 3,659 first-time gun permits and 15,102 renewals.

Authorities attribute the rise, in part, to fears of terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

“For many of these people, it might just be that having a gun permit gave them a measure of security,” said state police Lt. Robert Kiehm, who oversees the state’s gun ownership records for the Department of Public Safety. “A lot of them got the permits and never bought firearms.”

Gun permits, the first step toward purchasing a firearm, are valid in the state for up to five years.

Gun sales in the state this year stand at 36,856, up 8.8 percent from the 33,866 sold the previous year, the Connecticut Post reported Sunday. In the three months following the Sept. 11 attacks, the quarterly figure for gun sales, which typically average between 10,000 and 13,000 firearms, jumped to 17,303.

Since then, gun sales have dropped to about 12,000 per quarter, the Post reported.

Currently, 673,983 weapons are registered in Connecticut, up from 600,000 a year ago.

“But if you ask me, the actual number of firearms is much, much higher,” Kiehm says. “Conservatively, we are off by about 2 million. We have a good system in place, but we don’t have good data. It doesn’t take into account all of the secondary gun transactions that are never reported like you inheriting a pistol from your dad or friends selling or conveying firearms to each other.”