LITTLE ROCK — A Senate committee has advanced a bill to make secret the list of Arkansans permitted to carry concealed handguns.
The Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday approved the measure from Republican Sen. Bruce Holland of Greenwood.
The legislation would exempt the concealed carry information from the state’s Freedom of Information Act. Current law only allows the names and ZIP codes of permit holders to be released.
The current law is the result of a compromise struck in 2009 after legislators originally backed making the entire list secret.
Holland says he filed his proposal in response to a New York newspaper that published the names and addresses of permit holders last year after the Connecticut school massacre. The bill now heads to the full Senate.
