NASHVILLE — A National Rifle Association-backed effort to block public access to handgun carry permits goes too far for Republican Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey, one of the top gun rights advocates in the Tennessee General Assembly.
Ramsey told The Associated Press that the ability to scrutinize the identities of people with handgun carry permits strengthens arguments that gun enthusiasts are worthy of carrying loaded firearms in public.
"Having the handgun carry records open actually helps the cause of the Second Amendment," he said in an interview Thursday. "Because people can go look at those and realize that they truly are law-abiding citizens."
Ramsey added, "I encourage people like the press to look through these to figure out whether there's something we're missing. When you don't shine light on something, that's when problems are caused."
Ramsey's position conflicts with NRA, which has long called for sealing the records so the public and news media cannot see who has the state-issued permits.
"Members of the media have no business possessing personal information of Tennesseans with handgun carry permits," NRA spokeswoman Stephanie Samford said in an email.
More than 390,000 people have obtained handgun carry permits in Tennessee, or about 8 percent of the eligible population. Ramsey is a chief sponsor this year of a bill to allow permit holders to store their firearms in the vehicles no matter where they are parked. Currently businesses can ban weapons on their property, while schools and colleges can stop students and faculty from keeping firearms in their vehicles.
Ramsey has said he is willing to override the property rights concerns raised by the business committee because handgun carry permit holders have met vigorous background check and training requirements.
The last serious effort to seal the records in Tennessee passed the House in 2009. But it failed in the Senate amid fears that political groups and gun advocates would no longer be able to access addresses of handgun carry permit holders to add to their mailing lists soliciting contributions.
Freshman state Rep. William Lamberth, R-Gallatin, said he introduced the bill on the urging of a constituent upset that carry permit information had been published on newspaper websites. Lamberth said he had not been contacted by the NRA about the proposal.
"The whole goal of this legislation is to provide more safety and security for our community," Lamberth said in a phone interview.
"Imagine if you had a list of every person with a 60-inch television in their home," he said. "That would be a list burglars would love to have."
While the original version of the bill envisions a blanket ban, Lamberth said he plans to propose a change to allow the Safety Department to respond to requests about whether a specific person holds a permit.
"It allows for a one-name check," Lamberth said. "It doesn't allow for the entire the entire list to get out there under any circumstance."
Ramsey agreed that "it serves no purpose" for news organizations to post searchable databases of handgun carry permit holders online. A website database posted by The Commercial Appeal helped drive the last push to close the list in Tennessee while more recently a suburban New York City newspaper drew angry denunciations when it prepared a map of gun permit holders' homes.
"So I would be in favor of not being able to publish it or mass produce it," Ramsey said. "But at the same time, the records need to stay open."
Sen. Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin and the co-sponsor of the measure, said he has discussed the matter with Ramsey and that he is still working on what the best language for the legislation will be.
"We're concerned about it being published on a website or in a newspaper," Haile said.
friendly2a writes:
February 18, 2013
2:01 PM
ron ramsey is completely wrong on this one, we need to have that information sealed to prevent vigilante journalists (i use journalists losely here) from printing our information for every thug, criminal, and anti-freedom activists out there to use against us law abiding citizens.
masonjar writes:
February 18, 2013
2:28 PM
I agree that Ron Ramsey is wrong to oppose this. The state Rep. William Lamberth made a great arguement stating that their is no difference between a list of people with guns and a list of people with 60" TV's. I support the guns in trunks law, as I am a carry permit holder, however, I urge Mr. Ramsey to take a lesson from the freshman.
treestreetchick writes:
February 18, 2013
2:34 PM
Let's face it...most of the extreme pro-NRA politicians are in office predominantly because of the NRA support and advocacy for them.
Remove Money from Politics writes:
February 18, 2013
3:09 PM
honestly I think we have bigger problems in TN than worrying about this.
kpierson writes:
February 18, 2013
10:54 PM
Of course Ron is coming down against this, it would stop him from accessing the list to pretend like he is a friend to gun owners instead of the closeted hater he is. He opposed fighting companies over allowing them on the property before and only a swell of public support a cover your *&& move has him supporting it now.
Maybe this will finally convince the NRA to support a primary challenge to this joker.
winelover writes:
February 19, 2013
7:43 AM
Ramsey, as usual, is shooting from the hip without the first thought. Either the records would be open or they would not. He's conveniently forgotten another of major significant element in the Bill of Rights. There's a little thing called the First Amendment that says:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Now, there are limits to press freedoms, such as violations of copyright and libel, but those are few and far between. Somehow I doubt Herr Ramsey's dream of prohibiting newspapers from printing open records would meet any court's test on the First Amendment.
PapawTN writes:
February 28, 2013
1:03 PM
@winelover am glad that you feel that my right to privacy is not as important as freedom of the press to publish in any format my personal information. If Mr. Ramsey allows this to happen then he needs to be voted out of office. I have an idea, to access the list you must register with all of your personal information, then lets keep a record of who accesses the database and when so we can publish in the NRA newsletter the personal information of every person who accesses the list. That is fair, isn't it?
winelover writes:
February 28, 2013
5:24 PM
Well, now, PapawTN, you made the all-too-typical mistake of misconstruing my statement. The point was not whether the records should be open or whether they should be published, but as to whether the state could actually prevent a newspaper from legally publishing an open record. If Ramsey wants to keep the records from being published, he'll have to close them. Plain and simple. Now, a law that opens the record when a gun is used in an illegal act might make more sense than just a wholesale law in either direction. Duh.