2005 Connecticut Code - Sec. 29-36. Alteration of firearm identification mark, number or name.

      Sec. 29-36. Alteration of firearm identification mark, number or name. (a) No person shall remove, deface, alter or obliterate the name of any maker or model or any maker's number or other mark of identification on any firearm as defined in section 53a-3. The possession of any firearm upon which any identifying mark, number or name has been removed, defaced, altered or obliterated shall be prima facie evidence that the person owning or in possession of such firearm has removed, defaced, altered or obliterated the same.

      (b) Any person who violates any provision of this section shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than five years or both and any firearm found in the possession of any person in violation of said provision shall be forfeited.

      (1949 Rev., S. 4167; P.A. 97-56, S. 1.)

      History: P.A. 97-56 designated existing provisions as Subsec. (a), amended said Subsec. (a) to replace "pistol or revolver" with "firearm" and include defacing an identifying mark, number or name as a prohibited act and added Subsec. (b) re the penalty for a violation, revising the penalty formerly located in Sec. 29-37(a) to include all firearms.

      Cited. 193 C. 7, 8, 12. Cited. 237 C. 348, 352.

      Cited. 9 CA 169, 171; judgment reversed, see 205 C. 370, 385. Cited. 19 CA 51-53. Cited. 42 CA 768. Possession of weapon on which the identification mark has been altered or obliterated is "prima facie" evidence that the person in possession of weapon altered or obliterated the identification number. Further, statute does not, by its language, limit application of the inference to situations in which accused is in actual possession of a pistol. 70 CA 232.

      Subsec. (a):

      Provision re possession as prima facie evidence of alteration is permissive inference, not mandatory presumption. 246 C. 339.