Portrait: A Connecticut State Pistol and Revolver Permit holder, Brendan Kruse of New Haven, who was able to fend off three muggers in New Haven in 2011 while using his pistol that he was carrying concealed. January 18, 2013. Photo by Peter Hvizdak / New Haven Register

By Michelle Tuccitto Sullo
Investigations Editor
If you live in a small town in Connecticut, you are more likely to have a pistol permit than a city dweller.
While Bridgeport has the highest number of permit holders, several small, rural towns top the list with the highest percentage of their population having a pistol permit.
About 170,000 people in Connecticut have them, and the number of individuals seeking them has increased in recent years.
Attorney Ralph Sherman of New Britain, who has had a pistol permit for about 25 years, said he originally got his because he knew people who had awakened to discover a burglar in their home.
“I wondered what I would do in that situation,” Sherman said. “I don’t feel that calling 911 and waiting for help is adequate.”

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Hanson

By Michelle Tuccitto Sullo
Investigations Editor
DERBY — On what would have been missing man William “Billy” Smolinski’s 40th birthday Monday, a man accused of lying to police about the location of his body pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 4½ years in prison.
Chad Hanson, 33, of Seymour pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement concerning injury or death in Superior Court.
Hanson was arrested after he led state police to conduct an unsuccessful 10-day search in Oxford, near Prokop Road and Woodruff Hill Road, for Smolinski’s body in October 2011.
Hanson has also given information to police that led to unsuccessful searches in Seymour in 2008 and in the Naugatuck State Forest in 2010.

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