RICHMOND
--A Senate committee yesterday approved a bill that would keep the database of concealed weapons permit holders private, after a debate over the fact that they'd still be on public view in courthouses.Sen. Edd Houck's bill is identical to one from Del. Dave Nutter that a House committee passed unanimously last week.
Both bills exempt from the Freedom of Information Act the state police database of people who have concealed weapons permits.
The issue surfaced last year when the Roanoke Times published the entire database online. The Free Lance-Star regularly publishes new permit applications available from court clerks.
Under both Houck's and Nutter's bills, the versions of the permits in courthouses will still be public record. Houck said that was because the Freedom of Information Advisory Council--which is backing his bill--supported a balance between privacy and the public's right to see documents.
The idea is that anyone who might abuse the information of permit-holders would have a harder time going to individual courthouses to find a particular person who has a permit.
But the issue that surfaced in the Senate Courts of Justice Committee yesterday--which did not come up in the House committee--was whether those courthouse records should be made private as well.
Philip Van Cleave of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, gave committee members copies of the Free Lance-Star's publication of permit-holders' information.
"They're doing on a small scale what the Roanoke Times did on a large scale," Van Cleave said. "This is not doing a public service, it's just endangering innocent people."
Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax, who had a bill that would have allowed permit-holders to remove their private information from documents that would be public, proposed amending Houck's bill to provide that option.
Cuccinelli said it would protect people who've been victims of stalking, or other crimes and who don't want their addresses or even the fact that they have a concealed weapon to be known.
Houck objected, saying that while the publication of the whole database "really violated a lot of individuals' right to privacy," the principle of the public's right to know still had to be weighed. He said his bill is a carefully crafted balancing act that would be upset by such an amendment.
"That's purely a balance of varying interests," Houck said.
Sen. Roscoe Reynolds, D-Martinsville, said part of what convinced some lawmakers to support even providing concealed weapons permits was that the applications for them were public documents.
"We need to be extremely careful in this area," Reynolds said. "Every person who applies for a concealed carry permit understands that their application is a matter of public record. They've got a choice, it looks like to me. You don't need a permit to carry as long as it's not concealed. If we are going to exempt it from the public record, I have an idea that there may be some who supported the concealed carry who have reservations if you are going to shroud the process in secrecy."
In the end the committee passed Houck's bill as it was, and the full Senate should vote on it later this week.
Chelyen Davis: 804/782-9362
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com