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The
Indiana Coalition for Open Government board has given its thumbs down to bills in the state Legislature that
would close off public access to information on handgun permits, including the
identities of those who are awarded licenses.
The
two bills, however, have had overwhelming support among legislators, who are
moving the restrictions toward adoption. The
board at its annual meeting Jan. 29 voted to oppose S.B. 195, which would make
all information on gun permits private. Keith Robinson, president, had
testified against the bill before the Senate committee hearing the proposal. He
said that while some handgun carriers might want information about their
license kept private for their security, members of the general public might
want to know for their own safety who has a license to carry a handgun.
Robinson said there was no compelling reason to change the law to favor privacy
over disclosure in this case.
The
committee, however, passed the bill 7-2 and sent it to the full Senate, where
it was approved 45-5 Feb. 2 and sent to the House.
ICOG
also opposes H.B. 1068, which would make limited, non-identifying information
on gun permits available to journalists and academic researchers but not to the
general public. The House passed that bill 85-11 Jan. 26, forwarding it to the
Senate.
Closing
public access to gun permit licenses would severely limit public oversight of
the permitting process, such as what The Indianapolis Star accomplished in a
recent investigation in which it found irregularities in licensing. The newspaper
reported that state police in some cases
awarded permits to individuals with a history of violent behavior and
disregarded some recommendations by local police to reject permit applications.
The Star’s report was accompanied by a database, posted on its Web site,
showing the number of permits issued by ZIP code but did not identifying
holders of the licenses.
Both
bills were filed after public outcry over posting of that database and a
similar one posted by The Herald-Times of Bloomington. Some lawmakers said they
were inundated with complaints from license holders who presumed that the
information on the permits was confidential.
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Legislative Updates 
