Governor Jay Nixon’s office has announced that the Department of Revenue will no longer scan or keep certificates of qualification for Missouri concealed carry permit holders.
In a statement Nixon says scanning and retention of those documents is not necessary to ensure the integrity of the license issuance process. Department spokespeople had told a House Committee that the scans were made and kept in an effort to weed out fraud.
The Department will continue scanning other documents from licence applicants. When asked if the database of scans being stored in the state data center in Jefferson City would be destroyed, Nixon said, “I’ll leave that to Department of Revenue to go through any other details.”
The announcement comes a day after the resignation of the Department’s Director, Brian Long, who had been appointed in December around the same time the Department began making those scans.
Nixon says he will keep working with policymakers to ensure the license issuance process is secure and private.
Nixon has maintained that the Department was not sending private information from concealed carry and driver’s licence applicants to the federal government. He also said it was not storing such information in a database, but the Department’s spokespeople testified it was being retained in the state data center.
