Arkansas House approves bill making CCW permit holders list secret, other states do the same.

www.baxterbulletin.com...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Over the objection of freedom of information advocates, Arkansas lawmakers on Tuesday approved legislation that would make secret the list of nearly 130,000 residents who have permits to carry concealed weapons.

The Arkansas house passed this 84-3. The senate also passed this earlier, with 24-9.

In the state of Arkansas, police could release a CCW holders name and zip code if a FOIA was filed.

Unlike New York’s law, Arkansas’ current Freedom of Information Act allows police to release only the names and zip codes of permit holders. That’s the result of a 2009 compromise that lawmakers approved after a previous effort to make all of the information secret.

The governer has said he opposes the bill, but there's not really much he can do now. If he veto's the bill, it wont make a difference. It will be overridden with a simple majority. 84-3 in the house, 24-9 in the senate? This is going to become law.

Also recently, a few other states have done pretty much the same as Arkansas.

Four additional states — Kansas, Kentucky, Oregon and South Carolina — recently enacted legislation keeping concealed weapons permits secret, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. And on Tuesday, Maine’s governor swiftly signed into law an emergency, temporary measure to keep the names of permit-holders confidential following public furor over a newspaper’s request for the information.

Good on Arkansas and the other states that are doing this. Personal privacy.

reply to post by buni11687


That's good. I don't even think cops should be allowed to know. Maybe a cop can answer that for me, if you do a search on the license plate or license of someone will it tell if they are a ccw? I know cops will say it's for their safety, but if the person is legal ccw than they shouldn't be too afraid in the first place.

I ask and wonder because a family member of mine got their ccw and it always made me nervous that they would be driving and get pulled over and the cop seeing this information (if it shows up) might get jumpy - do the whole draw their weapon and "ask" you to get out of the car at gunpoint at a regular traffic stop.

A friend of mine had passed his ccw but hadn't gotten the paperwork (which if you take the test you will find can take like 6 months or more) and was pulled over. He told the officer (who was a young rookie) that he had his gun in the glove compartment and the cop argued with him that it wasn't legal to do and called back up. When the older cop got there he assured him that it was legal. The part that annoyed me about the story is that at the end, before parting ways, the officer told him he shouldn't carry it with him (kind of like a just because it's easier on us, makes me feel safer, whatever).

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow

Maybe a cop can answer that for me, if you do a search on the license plate or license of someone will it tell if they are a ccw?

I think if they run a license plate, they just get information on the car (such as what color the car is, manufacturer of the car, owner, ect...to check and see if the cars stolen, or if someone switched out the license plate from another car).

When they run an id/drivers license, I think the officer has to specifically ask dispatch if that individual has a CCW. Im not 100% sure though.

In Missouri your CCW is entered into the MULES (no idea what the acronym stands for but it’s the system that has all your information, address, priors and such) system which is linked to your driver’s license so yea the officer will know when they run it.

I haven't gotten a traffic ticket in like 20 years so I have no idea what kind of reaction one gets from them if you are armed. I suppose it varies from the paranoid to the could care less spectrum.

Really, I see no reason for an officer to be worried if a person has a CCW - these people are not the kind who gun down cops as demonstrated by their lack of record and background information.

I'd say they should be more worried when they pull over someone without one. A CCW holder is more likely to be a help to an officer in trouble than a danger to one.