HARTFORD — The governors of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island are forming a coalition of like-minded states on gun control, hoping to make progress where they see the federal government has faltered.
The four Democrats announced the formation of “States for Gun Safety” on Thursday, about a week after the mass shooting at a Florida high school. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy says that shooting accelerated their idea to form the coalition, which has been in the works for about a year.
They are creating a cross-state task force that will trace and intercept illegal guns, step up intelligence and information sharing among the participating states and create a regional gun violence research consortium.
They’ll be urging others to join the coalition at this weekend’s National Governors Association meeting.
