Connecticut requires that the Division of Scientific Services (Division) of the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection establish a firearms evidence databank.¹ The databank is a computer-based system that scans a “test fire” (discharged ammunition consisting of a cartridge case or bullet or fragment thereof containing sufficient microscopic characteristics to compare with other discharged ammunition) from a handgun and stores an image of the test fire in a manner suitable for retrieval and comparison to other test fires and other evidence in a criminal investigation.²

The databank may be used to: 1) compare two or more cartridge cases, bullets or other projectiles submitted to the Division laboratory or produced at the laboratory from a handgun; or 2) verify by microscopic examination any resulting match upon the request of a police department as part of a criminal investigation.³ Any image of a cartridge case, bullet or fragment of a cartridge or bullet that is not matched by a databank search shall be stored in the databank for future searches.⁴

A police department shall submit to the laboratory any handgun that comes into police custody as the result of a criminal investigation, as found property, or for destruction, prior to the return or the destruction of the handgun.⁵ The laboratory shall collect a test fire from each submitted handgun within 60 days of submission, and label the test fire with the handgun manufacturer, type of weapon, serial number, date of the test fire and name of the person collecting the test fire.⁶ Police departments are required to collect a test fire from every handgun that is to be issued to an employee.⁷

The Division may permit a police department that complies with all laboratory guidelines and regulations adopted by the Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection regarding the operation of the databank to: 1) collect test fires from handguns that come into the custody of the police department; 2) set up a remote terminal to enter test fire images directly into the databank; and 3) search the databank.⁸

The laboratory may share databank information with other law enforcement agencies, both within and outside Connecticut, and may participate in a national firearms evidence databank program.⁹

Connecticut has no laws regarding firearm microstamping.

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1. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 29-7h(b)(1).[↩]
2. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 29-7h(a)(1), (5).[↩]
3. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 29-7h(b)(2).[↩]
4. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 29-7h(b)(3).[↩]
5. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 29-7h(c)(1).[↩]
6. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 29-7h(c)(2).[↩]
7. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 29-7h(d)(1).[↩]
8. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 29-7h(b)(4).[↩]
9. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 29-7h(e). Additional requirements for submitting test fires and handguns to the database and for searching the database are detailed under Conn. Agencies Regs. §§ 29-7h-1—29-7h-6.[↩]