HoodaThunk?

Restrictions to Concealed Carry database to be made permanent under submitted proposal

Back in March I wrote about the actions of the Roanoke Times in publishing a searchable database of Virginians holding concealed carry licenses. The last post I did on the subject dealt with the decision by the Virginia State Police to close access to their state-wide compendium of that data. Now, the State’s Freedom of Information Advisory Council is recommending that closure be made permanent.

The 12-member panel, which is appointed by the General Assembly, includes a mix of government, academic, legal and media representatives.

Critics of the newspaper’s decision to post the statewide database noted that the permit list contains the names and addresses of crime victims and witnesses who may have concealed-carry permits for protection.

“I think the real concern here was that there were a lot of people on that list who were victims of crime, who had been stalked or who had been in abusive situations,” said House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, a member of the council.

Precisely. One of media’s favorite unspoken questions regards whether we should do a particular thing simply because we can do that thing. This was a prime example of a “no, we shouldn’t” situation and it was of their own making. I can see the oncoming wailing and gnashing of teeth in the media over what were publicly available records becoming closed but they’ve got no one but themselves to blame.

December 9th, 2007 Posted by ricjames | 2nd Amendment, Politics, The Media | no comments