By David Schiff
Most states require permits for concealed weapons, but public access to permit records is becomingly increasingly rare. Last December, in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown Connecticut, a White Plains, New York newspaper, the Journal News, published an interactive, online map with the locations of handgun permit holders in its readership area. Journal News created the map by using Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain concealed weapon permit information from a state database. The map became the focus of both local and national controversy. A primary concern was that the map infringed on the privacy of gun owners and placed them at heightened risk of burglary.
When New York State passed a gun reform law in January, it included an opt-out provision for gun permit holders to have their names and addresses removed from the state’s publicly accessible records (a subsequent court ruling has required that addresses of permit holders be automatically withheld from the public). And after New York’s law passed, Journal News took its map down.
Although Journal News’s gun map lasted less than a month, it is expected to have a lasting effect on the public availability of gun permit records maintained in state databases. According to a recent report by Stateline, the online news service of the Pew Charitable Trusts, Maine, Virginia, Arkansas and Mississippi have all followed New York in closing off public access to gun permit records. A majority of states have enacted similar laws in past years, and at present, only seven states (California, Iowa, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia). Of those seven, two allow only restricted access and at least one more is contemplating legislation to close its gun permit records to the public entirely.
Stateline Report on gun records reform: http://www.pewstates.org/projects/stateline/headlines/lawmakers-move-swiftly-to-block-release-of-gun-permit-records-85899457096
Journal News article introducing Gun Map (map itself has been taken down): http://www.lohud.com/interactive/article/20121223/NEWS01/121221011/Map-Where-gun-permits-your-neighborhood-?nclick_check=1
Washington Post article on Journal News removing gun map:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/01/18/journal-news-takes-down-gun-maps/
New York Magazine Daily Intelligencer blog post on court decision that further restricted access to gun records:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/02/court-makes-gun-map-impossible-to-recreate.html