http://www.star-telegram.com/225/story/56587.html
Public record
Star-Telegram
Texas issues lots of optional licenses -- for cosmetology, pest control and doling out prescription medicine.
The state also issues licenses to people who qualify under state law to carry concealed handguns.
As has been stated before in this space -- three times -- there are interesting conflicts inherent in this gun-permit issue. Texans who qualify for the permits by law must always conceal the fact that they are legally carrying handguns. So why should the fact that they have a license be public information?
That's the question that state Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, is asking through a bill that would block public access to concealed-handgun permit records. He's picking up the campaign that former Rep. Suzanna Hupp, R-Lampasas, was never successful in winning during her tries in 1999, 2003 and 2005.
House Bill 991, which won unanimous approval Wednesday in the House Law Enforcement Committee, now moves to the full House for consideration. An identical bill in the Senate, written by Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, has been sitting in the State Affairs Committee since January.
It needs to stay there.
A CHL is a state-issued permit, which means it should be a public record just like other optional licenses granted by the state: driver's license, auctioneer's license or dental hygienist's license.
If the National Rifle Association, which has backed this effort from the get-go, wants to keep knowledge about who might be carrying and who might not private, it needs to get the state to repeal the law requiring a license to carry a handgun.
Until then, a state license is, by its very nature, a public record.