CONCEALED-WEAPONS LAW: Secret guns
03/21/2004
IF YOUR NEIGHBOR'S acting strange, and you wonder if he's licensed to carry a concealed gun, don't try to find out. It's secret.
If your daughter is dating a guy who gives you the creeps, and you wonder if he carries a pistol, forget about it. It's secret.
If the co-worker in the next cubicle has been mumbling under his breath about getting back at the boss, and you wonder if he's packing, stop wondering. It's a secret, compliments of the Missouri Legislature's concealed-weapons law.
One of the more absurd loopholes in a law full of loopholes is the sentence that says this: "Information regarding any holder of a certificate of qualification or a concealed carry endorsement is a closed record." Piling absurdity upon absurdity, the law makes it a crime for any person to release the information. So, even though it is not a criminal offense to carry a concealed gun into a church, stadium or school, it is a crime for a public official to disclose any information about a person's record with respect to concealed-carry rules.
Citizens or reporters who want to know the names of people whose gun permits were revoked for dangerous use, can't find out. In fact, the law is so broadly worded that the police report on a person who had to be removed from Busch Stadium because he had a gun probably would be closed.
Charles Davis, director of the Freedom of Information Center at the Mizzou Journalism School, says the law amounts to the "hobgoblin of privacy ... trampling the rights of society." He found that records on every other group licensed by the state - acupuncturists, funeral directors, barbers, police officers - are open. They are open to provide accountability, but that won't be possible with secret gun records.
Sen. Ken Jacob, D-Columbia, tried unsuccessfully this month to open the gun records. In an imaginative response, Sen. Harold Caskey, D-Butler, said robbers could check the records to target citizens who don't have guns. The idea of robbers performing records checks to pick their victims is fanciful indeed. It also contradicts last year's argument by pro-gun legislators who said secrecy was needed so that our record-checking robber wouldn't target for theft those people who have guns.
This spring, when the Legislature turns its attention to fixing problems with the concealed-weapons law, it needs to fix this foolishness. If people are going to carry concealed guns, they have to be publicly accountable.
Maybe we should ask for legislation requiring them to let us review their work before printing. How do we know they are qualified to make any statements like this. Have they had any training and permitting?
03/21/2004
IF YOUR NEIGHBOR'S acting strange, and you wonder if he's licensed to carry a concealed gun, don't try to find out. It's secret.
If your daughter is dating a guy who gives you the creeps, and you wonder if he carries a pistol, forget about it. It's secret.
If the co-worker in the next cubicle has been mumbling under his breath about getting back at the boss, and you wonder if he's packing, stop wondering. It's a secret, compliments of the Missouri Legislature's concealed-weapons law.
One of the more absurd loopholes in a law full of loopholes is the sentence that says this: "Information regarding any holder of a certificate of qualification or a concealed carry endorsement is a closed record." Piling absurdity upon absurdity, the law makes it a crime for any person to release the information. So, even though it is not a criminal offense to carry a concealed gun into a church, stadium or school, it is a crime for a public official to disclose any information about a person's record with respect to concealed-carry rules.
Citizens or reporters who want to know the names of people whose gun permits were revoked for dangerous use, can't find out. In fact, the law is so broadly worded that the police report on a person who had to be removed from Busch Stadium because he had a gun probably would be closed.
Charles Davis, director of the Freedom of Information Center at the Mizzou Journalism School, says the law amounts to the "hobgoblin of privacy ... trampling the rights of society." He found that records on every other group licensed by the state - acupuncturists, funeral directors, barbers, police officers - are open. They are open to provide accountability, but that won't be possible with secret gun records.
Sen. Ken Jacob, D-Columbia, tried unsuccessfully this month to open the gun records. In an imaginative response, Sen. Harold Caskey, D-Butler, said robbers could check the records to target citizens who don't have guns. The idea of robbers performing records checks to pick their victims is fanciful indeed. It also contradicts last year's argument by pro-gun legislators who said secrecy was needed so that our record-checking robber wouldn't target for theft those people who have guns.
This spring, when the Legislature turns its attention to fixing problems with the concealed-weapons law, it needs to fix this foolishness. If people are going to carry concealed guns, they have to be publicly accountable.
Maybe we should ask for legislation requiring them to let us review their work before printing. How do we know they are qualified to make any statements like this. Have they had any training and permitting?
