Officials struggle to navigate concealed guns legislation

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- There is a game that jokesters sometimes like to play called Open or Closed. You take two objects, perhaps carefully selecting two cards from a deck, then arrange them in various positions, each time asking the players: "Open or closed?"

Participants concentrating on the position of the cards -- as most do -- will quickly become frustrated, because the correct answer is based on whether the questioner's mouth is opened or closed.

A similar sort of frustration is festering among many Missourians trying to play along with the state's new concealed guns law, which allows most adults 23 and older to get conceal-carry permits after passing training and background checks.

The state Supreme Court generally upheld the law in a decision late last month, but ruled that its funding mechanism might impose an illegal unfunded mandate on county sheriffs responsible for handling applications.

In the ensuing confusion, some sheriffs are issuing concealed gun permits, others are not, and still others are waiting for further clarification. Plus, another lawsuit has been filed. The result is there is no uniform answer as to whether sheriffs' offices are now opened or closed for concealed gun applicants.

Also somewhat unclear is what information will be open or closed to the public.

The concealed gun law states -- seemingly quite clearly -- that "information regarding any holder of a ... concealed carry endorsement is a closed record."

It states further that the basic fact of whether someone has a concealed gun permit "shall not be public information and shall be considered personal protected information." Anyone who releases the information could face a misdemeanor charge punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Basic statisticsBut what about basic statistical information, such as the number of applicants who have passed or failed the fingerprint background checks? Or the various reasons why people failed the checks?

The Missouri State Highway Patrol, which processes the background checks, was undecided as recently as the middle of last week on whether it could release that information. It was seeking advice from Attorney General Jay Nixon.

There was no official decision by the end of the week. But Capt. Tim McGrail, director of the patrol's Criminal Records and Identification Division, said he presumed such statistical information ultimately would be cleared for release, since it didn't identify a particular individual.

Yet the patrol's uncertainty indicates something larger.

"Everybody is very careful, and they're a little bit on edge making sure they're trying" to follow the law, McGrail said. "You look at that statute and it's all subject to interpretation."

The National Rifle Association, when contacted last week by The Associated Press, initially listed Missouri as making its concealed gun records open. Upon further review, the NRA placed Missouri among 20 states with confidential records, and listed 16 other states with open records.

But at least one of the open-record states on the NRA's list -- Minnesota -- actually closes its records to the public.

Only law enforcement officers can access records on individual Minnesotans with concealed gun permits, said Kathy Leatherman, a management analyst in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. But the state does release statistical information, such as the number of permits issued (15,000 since the law took effect May 28) and the reasons why applicants were denied.

South Dakota, which has allowed concealed guns for quite some time, makes public all applicant information -- name, height, weight, hair color, address, and issuance and expiration dates for the permits, to name a few topics.

But Secretary of State Chris Nelson said the law was changed two years ago to prohibit release of the information electronically, or in any form that could be used to create a government or private database of all concealed gun permit holders.

That curious provision touches on a basic fear of gun rights advocates -- that the government might use a list of gun owners for harassing purposes. It also covers a more general concern -- that the list could fall into the hands of mass-media mailers.

In Missouri, concealed gun supporters have argued that robbers, stalkers and murderers could use a list of permit holders -- if it were public -- to know how to target their victims.

Nelson, a Republican, said few people actually request information about South Dakotans with concealed gun permits.

"I myself am not sure what value I would see in it," Nelson said, "but we generally believe in having open records in South Dakota."

So South Dakota is open. Missouri is closed ... with a puzzled grimace.