The Prince George’s County Council unanimously passed a bill Tuesday allowing county police to create a registry to monitor residents who have been convicted of a gun-related crime. The gun-offender registry, an increasingly common law enforcement tool used by officials in D.C. and Baltimore, could help quell gun-related violence and homicides that police and county lawmakers say have become far too prevalent in Prince George’s.

More than two-thirds of the murders in Prince George’s in 2011 were the result of gunshots, police said.