Gun Bill Passes, Then Fails in House

Political gamesmanship was in full force in the state House today as the Criminal Practice Subcommittee considered a controversial bill to make handgun carry permits secret.

When several of the bill’s opponents left the subcommittee meeting this afternoon, the remaining members called for a vote and passed it. When word of the move reached House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, he immediately named a new member to the Subcommittee, who then went to the still-ongoing meeting. A new vote delayed further action on the bill until October 2012.

Naifeh said the gun permit information should remain public so that citizens could be sure that permits are not being issued to ineligible persons – like felons.

Nina Cardona also contributed to this story

Web Extra

The bill is HB 3137 Bass/SB 3755 Norris. The bill would make the information in a handgun carry permit applications confidential. As drafted it would have created a Class E felony of unauthorized publication of permit information or records.

The bill was the subject of an attorney general’s opinion today (April 2) which said the bill, if passed, could probably be defended on its face but could be challenged on First Amendment grounds.

Naifeh can vote on any committee or subcommittee ex officio, as the speaker. After he voted to keep the gun permit records public, he showed off his own diploma, earned this past weekend at a gun range in Brighton, Tennessee, that would allow him to apply for his own handgun carry permit.

Naifeh qualified with a Smith & Wesson semiautomatic pistol in 9 millimeter Parabellum (9 millimeter Luger).

He said he will apply for a permit, but he also said he doesn’t intend to actually carry the piece.

Any bill deferred to a date past the last date when this legislature meets is dead.

It would have to be reintroduced in a future legislative session in order to be heard again.