LITTLE ROCK — A bill that would exempt the names and ZIP codes of about 130,000 concealed weapons permit holders in Arkansas from public disclosure sailed through an Arkansas Senate committee Tuesday, despite objections from two news media representatives.
Senate Bill 13, sponsored by Sen. Bruce Holland, R-Greenwood, also would exempt the names and ZIP codes of concealed-weapon permit applicants and former license holders.
In a voice vote, with only state Sen. David Johnson, D-Little Rock, dissenting, the Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee recommended Senate approval of the legislation.
Holland said he proposed the bill after a Little Rock doctor, whose name he declined to disclose, told him that he worried about a New York newspaper’s decision to publish the names and addresses of concealed-permit holders.
“It’s a privacy issue,” Holland told the committee.
But David Bailey, managing editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and a member of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Coalition, said the statewide-circulation newspaper has never published a list of concealed weapon permit holders, and it doesn’t intend to do so.
But the newspaper has an interest in using the list to do “spot checks” and cross reference it with other information such as a list of convicted felons to determine whether they have illegally obtained concealed-weapon permits, he said.
Referring to Jessica Adamson, who said she was terrified two weeks ago when a drunken gunman appeared outside her rural Lonoke County home, Bailey said, “I can’t believe we are going to tell this woman that it is none of her business if this man, who went out and terrorized her family, still has a concealed-carry permit.
“It defies logic,” he said.
Game and Fish Commissioner Rick Watkins of Little Rock was arrested and charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct in that case in Lonoke County. He resigned from the commission last week.
But state Sen. Garry Stubblefield, R-Branch, said the only people who have told him they oppose the bill are representatives of the news media.
The vast majority of the people he’s heard from support the legislation, he said.
“And those are the people we have to represent,” Stubblefield said.
Dennis Byrd, executive editor of Stephens Media’s central Arkansas newspapers and a member of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Coalition, and Bailey said Holland’s bill would gut compromise legislation developed in the same Senate committee four years ago.
In 2009, the Legislature enacted a bill so that the names and ZIP codes of the licensed holders, applicants and former license holders would continue to be public information, while other personal information would be withheld.
Byrd said Holland’s bill “is not a Second Amendment bill.
“The bill creates a secret group of licensees whose identities can’t be known by anyone,” he said. “That means no interested party - neighbors, co-workers or other associates - can obtain information related to who has applied for or been licensed to carry a concealed weapon.”
But committee chairman Sen. Eddie Joe Williams, R-Cabot, said the New York newspaper’s decision to publish a list of the names and addresses of permit holders “was a direct attack on gun owners,” aimed at discouraging gun ownership.
“I think it’s sad that that was the motive. I can’t think of another reason for them to do that,” he said.
Bailey said it’s reprehensible that a New York newspaper published a list of names and addresses of permit holders.
“You are trying to get frightened into passing a bad bill when there is really nothing to be frightened about,” he said.
But Crawford County Assessor Ronnie Dale said he doesn’t understand why any newspaper would want information about who has a concealed-weapons permit.
“I just feel like it is infringing on my rights by putting my name out there,” he said.
Scotty Keller of Conway, a retired Realtor, said at Tuesday’s public meeting that she recently obtained a concealed-weapons permit, and she doesn’t want the public to know that she has guns.
“If I have to protect myself, I would not want some guy coming into my house expecting a gun. I want to be the person with the surprise,” she said.
Afterward, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe said the governor opposes Holland’s bill, but he hasn’t decided whether he will veto it.
“The governor feels that a good compromise was reached on this issue in 2009. That it protected the privacy of the permit holders and sustained the FOIA,” said Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample. The governor “thinks going back and undoing that compromise would deteriorate the Freedom of Information Act.”
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/06/2013