2-16-09

A few months ago a Memphis Tennessee newspaper decided to post a searchable database of area citizens who lawfully possess a concealed weapons permit as a (to date) permanent part of their site. When the commercialappeal.com first posted the database information such as date of birth and addressed were available. They have since removed access to that information probably due to vociferous reader backlash.

The state of Tennessee had this to say about the newspaper’s posting of the searchable database:

NASHVILLE — Public complaints have recently been directed to the Department of Safety over the release of personal information from a searchable database of handgun permit holders on the Memphis Commercial Appeal website http://www.commercialappeal.com/data/. The searchable database can be found on the newspaper’s Data Center webpage and offers users to “find out who in your community is licensed to carry a weapon”.
The Department of Safety appreciates the privacy concerns of Tennessee’s handgun permit holders; however, Tennessee Code 10-7-503 provides that all state records are open to inspection to any Tennessee citizen and the agency in charge of the records cannot deny access to them unless otherwise provided by state law. Currently, there is no state law which prohibits the disclosure of handgun permit records. Therefore, if a newspaper or other person makes a public records act request, the Department provides the following handgun permit information:

Full Name
DOB
Address
Zip Code
County
Issue Date
Expiration Date

While the Department of Safety Office of Public Affairs complies with state law by providing the handgun information from the handgun database upon request, we do not control whether media outlets such as the Commercial Appeal decide to publish the database on their public websites.

In 2007, the Nashville Tennessean published the handgun permit database on its website before shutting the information down within hours of making it public.

Apparently this posting had been sitting in relative obscurity on the site until an incident took place with a 59 year old concealed carry permit holder allegedly shooting someone in a parking lot. The news site reported the shooting was supposedly over one guy parking too close to another guy’s vehicle, the type of argument that happens a million times a day in this country without anyone getting shot. In fact one is much more likely to get their lights punched out in a situation like this than get shot at and that threat by itself keeps most people from attempting to get all jiggy with one another over parking arrangements.
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