HB1623 The Concealed Carry Privacy bill had yet another partial hearing today. an amendment was forced on us by the APA and then again by the committee.

I say "forced" because before we even had a chance to offer testimony today an amendment was put in front of us and the committee chair immediately asked to see the amendment. Rep. Martin asked if we could at least have the opportunity to testify, and the committee chair "allowed" it. Then he let the opposition to speak against the bill for a second time. Unreal.

I suspect that the Governors statement last week had a lot to do with this sudden change in atmosphere over this.

The amendment basically exempts concealed carry permit holders data from the FOIA with the exception of names. At first we were inclined to go ahead with the bill as is but basically the committee, after all the testimony told us to consider the "compromise" and then come back with the bill. This is their way of saying, "you are going to compromise."

Rep Stewart made a comical point that when your older brother forces your arms behind your back, sits on you and then asks you if, "you want to make a deal?" is really no deal at all. He's right. But thats what happened today.

So we looked at the amendment and we will tweak a few things because as Rep. Stewart said, "It's my bill, I'll make the amendment." Basically we can take their amendment and try to make sure that any features that can be used to identify a singular person are removed (as much as possible currently). Like specifically eliminating the county in which you live. That was one of the things the APA wanted. But if we remove it and give them "names only" that's basically all they will have, and it will be useless to them. We are also looking at keeping names only public but keep it from being published en mass. There still exists the ability to abuse the information by the press but that's compromise right?!

It's not ideal but these things seldom are. And at least we've succeeded in getting personal identifying information removed to the extent possible. If you have a unique name you'll likely still be indentifiable, seems like that's all we will be able to get. This is what we call, "elections have consequences."

Thanks Governor Beebe.

The bill will be back before committee on Thursday, hopefully after adopting their amendment (with a few little tweaks of course) it will go on through. That seems to be the committee's stance at the current time.

Stay tuned.

Here's Arkansas Business's report, "A lawmaker is considering a change to his proposal that would keep secret the names of Arkansans licensed to carry concealed handguns. Opponents say they could support blocking only information like addresses and dates of birth.

Rep. Randy Stewart of Kirby said he'll bring a revised version of his proposal to make the list exempt from the state's Freedom of Information Act before a Senate panel on Thursday. The Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee delayed action on Stewart's proposal until then.

The Arkansas Press Association said it would support amending the bill to redact only certain personal information. Stewart said his amended version would not mirror what the group is proposing."

You can comment on Channel 7's story about this here.

Here's a little more from Arkansas News Bureau. (notice they don't mention any of the arguments from Senators that were sympathetic to our view of the bill, hacks).

Max gloats - Arkansas Times (notice how he never admits to being responsible for this whole mess)

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