Concealed Guns: Right to Privacy vs. Right to Know

UPDATE in italics

A bill to prohibit public access to concealed handgun records and applications has triggered a clash between the right to privacy and the right to know.

Delegate R. Lee Ware, R-Powhatan, is sponsoring House Bill 79. It “prohibits a clerk of court from providing public access to concealed handgun permit applications and information regarding identifiable permittees without the written consent of the applicant or permittee.”

Under the legislation, “the applications and information would be available to law-enforcement agencies, and the clerk of court would be authorized to release aggregate information that does not identify individual applicants or permittees.”

The proposal by Ware, who represents Powhatan County and part of Chesterfield County, follows years of discussion over how public concealed weapons permits should be.
“My HB79 would complement a bill patroned last session by Delegate [Charles] Carrico, and passed easily by both chambers, and signed into law, to prohibit publication of concealed carry weapons’ permit-holders’ names obtained from lists maintained by the State Police. My bill would add Clerks of Courts records to the prohibition,” Lee stated in an e-mail.

Lee explained that “as a matter of personal (and by extension public) safety, the names of permit holders, already known to both the State Police, local law enforcement, and the Clerks of Courts, ought not be published to ensure the permit-holders’ safety. As you may know, concealed carry permit holders have a well-documented and long-standing record of proper use in firearms and obedience to the law.”

The proposal by Ware, who represents Powhatan County and part of Chesterfield County, follows years of discussion over how public concealed weapons permits should be.

In 2007, The Roanoke Times posted on its Web site a searchable database containing the names and addresses of more than 135,000 Virginians licensed to carry concealed weapons.

The database accompanied a column about Sunshine Week, a national initiative to promote open government.

After hundreds of readers complained, The Roanoke Times apologized and removed the database.

State officials then announced that they would no longer make available a database of concealed weapons permits. Individual records still are open for inspection, but only at the courthouse in the locality that issued the permit.

Some of the people on the list published by the Roanoke newspaper were members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun rights group.

Philip Van Cleave, the league’s president, said his group supports Ware’s bill. “The release of the names caused people to move and lives to be put in jeopardy,” Cleave said. “There was no need for names to be released.”

People often get concealed weapons permits if they feel they are in danger – a woman being stalked, for example, or a business owner who makes after-hours bank deposits. Moreover, permit holders say they fear criminals will target them – breaking into their homes or vehicles – to try to steal their weapons.

The Virginia Coalition for Open Government and the Virginia Press Association oppose Ware’s bill to keep concealed handgun records completely secret from the public.

Open-records advocates say there are good reasons for keeping the concealed weapons permits public: This helps ensure that dangerous people aren’t getting such permits.

Ginger Stanley, executive director of the press association, said she supports the compromise that was reached two years ago to keep concealed weapons permits open but not as an electronic data base.

Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, said it’s important for the public to be able to confirm if certain individuals have a concealed handgun permit.

“As long as permits for concealed weapons are required in Virginia, there should be some level of public access to them,” she said.

Ware’s bill has been referred to the House Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety.

Last year, the Tennessee Legislature almost passed a law similar to Ware’s proposal, according to Frank Gibson of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government.

That came after a Tennessee newspaper published a database of Tennessee’s concealed weapons permits holders.

Gibson said he believes such records should stay open.

“The state [Tennessee] had given permits to convicted felons and had failed to revoke permits following felony and domestic violence,” Gibson said. “The only way for the public and press to know whether the government is issuing permits to people who shouldn't have them is for the information to remain open.”