Crime & Safety
North Haven's Pistol Permit Rate: 7 Percent
A map published by the New Haven Register shows that 1,678 of North Haven residents carry pistol permits, while also reflecting an inverse relationship between pistol permit rates and high-crime areas.
A total of 1,678 of North Haven's more than 24,000 residents have obtained pistol permits — or a permit rate of 7 percent across the town — according to a state-wide database created by the New Haven Register.
The newspaper reports some 170,000 Connecticut residents in all have a pistol permits.
North Haven Permit Rate
Find out what's happening in North Havenwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
That number is on par with most other suburban towns across the state, as well as most neighboring municipalities — with 8.2 percent of North Branford residents, 5.4 percent of East Haven residents and 5 percent of Branford residents holding pistol permits.
The database uses information from the State of Connecticut and 2010 population data to map out pistol permit rates by town.
Find out what's happening in North Havenwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Inverse Relationship
The map overall shows an inverse relationship between the percentage of residents with pistol permits in a town compared to municipalities typically associated as being high-crime areas.
The data showed that municipalities typically considered high-crime areas generally have a smaller percentage of residents holding pistol permits.
High-Crime Towns
For example, only 1.6 percent of New Haven residents have pistol permits, 1.5 percent of Hartford residents, 2 percent of New London residents and 2.8 percent of Bridgeport residents.
The data reflects that all four have among the smallest percentage of residents with pistol permits in the state. However, all four municipalities are typically considered high-crime areas compared to other Connecticut municipalities.
Low-Crime Towns
Conversely, towns with higher percentages of residents with pistol permits are typically considered low-crime municipalities.
Most of the municipalities that have a relatively high percentage of residents with pistol permits, like Canaan with 13.5 percent, Union with 12.1 percent and Lebanon 10.4 percent, are rural, small towns with relatively low crime rates.
—Additional reporting by Paul Petrone and Jayme Kunze
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.