Bill Hobbs

PDF: House Bill 3137

NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Republican Party’s spokesman requested a copy of the state’s handgun carry permit holders database Thursday even as state GOP Chairman Robin Smith attacked House Democratic leaders for killing a bill that would closes such records to the public.

State Department of Safety spokesman Mike Browning said state GOP communications director Bill Hobbs made the request Thursday morning.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Hobbs issued a news release in which Mrs. Smith, who is from Hixson, charged that “Democrat House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh and his anti-gun gang won’t pass legislation protecting your Second Amendment rights or your security, but Republicans will — if voters will give us majority control of the state House.”

She called on gun owners and the estimated 190,000 handgun carry permit holders to “target their votes and their campaign donations accordingly to ensure their rights in Tennessee.”

Rep. Naifeh killed the National Rifle Association-backed measure Wednesday after legislative proponents pushed it through a House panel when two lawmakers who opposed the measure were absent.

The speaker said Thursday he is “not anti-gun at all. I’ve told you all before the number of rifles and shotguns and pistols I have.”

He said keeping records open is the “right thing to do” and cited news accounts of gun permit holders who kept the permit despite committing felonies.

The bill would exempt information about handgun permit holders from state open records act provisions and make it a felony punishable by up to six years in prison to publish the information.

Prior to information about the GOP request becoming known on Thursday, Mr. Hobbs sent an e-mail to the Chattanooga Times Free Press in which he stated, “Naifeh’s actions on those gun bills yesterday is likely to be a fund-raising boon for the Tennessee GOP.”

When asked later about the GOP’s request, Mr. Hobbs said, “We are aware of the irony in our requesting a copy of public records that we thought should not be public. However, we also believe Speaker Naifeh’s actions against the interest of law-abiding gun owners this week were so egregious as to deserve a thorough response through the campaign process.”

“We intend to find ways to give those 190,000 law-abiding gun owners across Tennessee a chance to have an impact,” Mr. Hobbs said.

Tennessee Democratic Party spokesman Wade Munday accused Mr. Hobbs of hypocrisy.

“If the Tennessee Republican Party actually respected the privacy rights of Tennessee gun enthusiasts and sportsmen, why would they violate their privacy by sending a crass plea for political dollars?” he said. “This is more than a brutal case of irony; this is the Tennessee Republican Party making Tennessee gun owners collateral damage as they invade their privacy.”

Mr. Hobbs said Mrs. Smith gave him the go-ahead to seek the information and acknowledged permit holders could be solicited for political contributions.

State party officials, he said, “try to get out the vote. We recruit candidates. We try to raise money to get our message out, and we encourage people to vote who support our party and our candidates. So I imagine we’ll use the list for something along those lines.”

Supporters of expanding handgun carry permit laws have said repeatedly that there have been few or even no problems involving permit holders committing crimes with weapons.

Mr. Browning, the Department of Safety spokesman, however, acknowledged that from September 2006 to February 2008, the state quit using the FBI’s National Crime Index Center when checking criminal backgrounds of existing handgun permit holders seeking renewals of their permits.

Mr. Browning said the FBI ordered the handgun unit to stop NCIC checks on renewals because the unit had no authority to access FBI records. He said criminal courts are supposed to send information of convictions to the department, but there are gaps in reporting.

Background checks continued on new applicants, he said.

Mr. Browning said the department transferred the handgun unit to the department’s criminal investigation division and resumed NCIC checks on renewal permits after investigative stories by Nashville’s Newschannel 5 revealed some handgun permits were being renewed despite serious felony offenses by permit holders.

In one case, the station reported, a man was convicted of attempted murder after he tried to shoot his ex-girlfriend and her new companion.

Since resuming NCIC checks, the department has revoked 37 permits as of March 20, Mr. Browning said. He said the department continues to plow through some of the 30,000 permits renewed from mid-2006 to early 2008.

The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, a coalition of news organizations and advocates of greater openness in government, fought the effort to shut down access to such records.

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Eddie Bass, D-Prospect, and Senate Republican Leader Mark Norris, R-Collierville. Co-sponsors include Rep. Mike Bell, R-Riceville.

The sponsor of another handgun carry permit bill, which sought to let handgun permit holders bring their weapons into establishments selling beer, wine and liquor, took his bill off notice Wednesday and said it was scheduled to go into a summer study committee.

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