CCW Archives - Missourinet

Committee announced to continue investigation into document scans, retention (VIDEO)

May 6, 2013 By Mike Lear

House Speaker Tim Jones has announced the formation of a new investigative committee that will look into the Nixon Administration’s handling of personal information from Missouri license and concealed carry permit applicants.

House Speaker Tim Jones (at podium) announces the committee flanked by several Republicans, including Committee members Gary Fuhr (left of podium), Omar Davis (right of podium, blue shirt and tie) and Russ Oliver (far right, red tie) (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Jones says Governor Jay Nixon still has not acknowledged the importance of the issue.

“The public’s trust has been violated. We must get to the bottom of this scandal.”

Jones says he is organizing and forming the Bipartisan Investigative Committee on Privacy Protection. Its members so far are: County Prosecutors Russ Oliver (R) of Stoddard County and Mike Fusselman (R) of Randolph County, Sheriffs Stuart Miller (D) of Audrain County and Oliver “Glenn” Boyer (D) of Jefferson County, Former General Counsel and Director of the Department of Revenue Omar Davis, and former state representative and retired FBI agent Gary Fuhr (R). More members could be announced later.

Jones is directing the committee to issue a report by September 1 detailing its findings, whether any state laws or protocols were broken or ignored, and its suggestions for new laws or protocols to prevent similar incidents.

Jones also addressed the filing of the Sunshine Request by the Office of Administration into an attempt by someone in the House to access the list of concealed carry permit holders that had been made available online to a special agent with the Social Security Administration. Jones says that attempt was made as part of the House’s ongoing investigation, to make sure that web portal was no longer active.

(Video courtesy; Jonathan Lorenz, Missouri House Communications)

House adopts CCW shift from Revenue Department to county sheriffs

April 24, 2013 By Mike Lear

The state House wants to pull the concealed carry permitting system from the Revenue Department and put it in the hands of county sheriffs. It has given initial approval to a bill that changes conceal & carry endorsements that now go on driver’s and non-driver’s licenses into permits, and gives the power to issue those permits to county sheriffs instead of the Department.

Representative Rick Brattin (photo courtesy; Missouri House Communications)

Representative Rick Brattin (R-Harrisonville) says he filed HB 859 in response to recent issues with how applicants’ information has been handled.

“It will put a stop to the practices of the Department of Revenue where they’ve been scanning our source documentation, for what reasons we don’t know yet. This would just remove that and just simplify it for every single … John Q. Taxpayer and every person that is moving to get their CCW endorsement.”

The bill proposes transferring ID processing equipment no longer used by the Department to the state’s sheriffs.

Added to the bill on the House floor is Brattin’s amendment that would let the state’s school districts designate teachers or administrators as “school protection officers.” Those officers would be allowed to carry concealed weapons on school property, if they have a valid concealed carry status and meet other training requirements.

Brattin says that would protect schools and children, but the idea doesn’t fly with Representative Genise Montecillo (D-St. Louis), a former St. Louis school teacher.

“This is outrageous. First of all, we rarely even have places to secure our purses, let alone weapons, in our classroom … we are not trained in emergency situations like that. One class that we go take or going and getting a concealed carry weapon permit is not going to train people who do not do that on a daily basis.”

The same language has already been added to another bill, HB 436, that has been sent to the Senate.

Other provisions would eliminate the requirement that concealed carry endorsements be renewed and make them valid for life unless suspended or revoked, bar business owners from keeping employees from having firearms in personal vehicles, keep state agencies from sharing a list of Missouri concealed carry holders with the federal government and stiffens penalties for felons having or using a gun in the commission of a felony.

The package needs another favorable vote to go to the Senate.

Luetkemeyer: ATF denies wanting MO concealed carry holder list

April 17, 2013 By Mike Lear

An official with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms has told Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer it was not part of a request from the Social Security Administration, for a list of concealed carry permit holders in Missouri.

Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-St. Elizabeth) fields questions from the media about the sharing of concealed carry information with the Social Security Administration.

An e-mail obtained from the Highway Patrol indicated the Bureau would be taking part in a joint investigation with the Administration that would use that list.

Congressman Luetkemeyer’s office says the Bureau believes it was mentioned in that e-mail by an intelligence analyst with the Missouri Information Analysis Center to “add weight to the request” for the list.

Luetkemeyer meets in-person tomorrow with the Social Security Administration’s Inspector General in his continuing investigation of the release of that list.

Nixon calls concealed carry situation ‘kerfuffle,’ distraction from Medicaid expansion (AUDIO)

April 16, 2013 By Mike Lear

Governor Jay Nixon says he was focused on security and privacy when he made the decision to have the Department of Revenue stop scanning qualification certificates for concealed carry endorsements. When pressed for details on related issues, however, Nixon became agitated and told reporters the issues regarding CCW information scans and dissemination are just a distraction from the issue of Medicaid expansion.

Governor Jay Nixon fields questions from reporters about CCW scans and their handling after speaking at a Medicaid expansion rally in the State Capitol Rotunda.

Nixon, fielding questions after speaking to an estimated 1,200 people at a Medicaid expansion rally in the State Capitol, told reporters, “What you’re seeing is a major kerfuffle to try to change not only the public’s focus of attention over something that is in this corner and to ignore what just has happened right here,” referring to the rally.

Nixon’s announcement Tuesday morning says the Department will quit scanning those certificates of qualification, but the Department has said it will continue to scan other documents. Nixon says the Department will work with policy makers to decide how to move forward.

“Those records are used, and quite frankly records in the public sector are used a lot, to make sure that public safety is protected whether its background checks and all the other stuff that are out there, and law enforcement purposes.”

The Revenue Department has testified to a House Committee that concealed carry and driver’s license applicant information that has been scanned is being stored in the state data center in Jefferson City. The Department has said it will find and delete the CCW qualifying certificates from that database.

Asked whether copies of other documents that have been scanned will be destroyed, Nixon again defers, “I’ll leave that to the Department of Revenue to go through any other details.”

Asked about Nixon’s assessment that the CCW situation is merely a distraction from Medicaid expansion, Senator Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) says it’s a serious issue.

“I would say that is a gross misunderstanding of the concerns of the public, on the behalf of the Governor.”

Schaefer says Nixon needs to act further.

“The Governor is responsible directly for what happens at the Department of Revenue including the Department of Motor Vehicles. At some point the Governor is going to have to step up the plate. He’s going to have to be frank with Missourians about what is being done with their personal information and say whether or not he thinks this new policy of keeping personal information and sharing it with outside sources in violation of state law is a good thing or a bad thing.”

Nixon says lawmakers need to spend more time talking about Medicaid expansion, calling it “the most significant public policy issue” he’s faced in 26 years.

“It’s time folks got back to work here and focused on what needs to get done. What needs to get done is we need to get $2 billion dollars down, we need to get downward pressure on healthcare premiums, we need to improve Medicaid. That is the key issue of this session.”

AUDIO: Hear the complete Q & A between reporters and Nixon, 4:14

Senator: ATF also wanted Missouri concealed carry holder information

April 16, 2013 By Mike Lear

The Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman says he’s learned that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms also wanted a list of Missouri concealed carry permit holders’ names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth.

State Senator Kurt Schaefer (right) announces the latest findings in his probe into the release of Missouri CCW holders’ information, joined by Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder (left).

Senator Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) says according to an internal e-mail from the Highway Patrol, when the Social Security Administration requested a list of Missouri concealed carry permit holders, it said it was to conduct a joint investigation with the ATF.

See the internal e-mails Schaefer refers to (pdf).

A list was sent to the Social Security Administration but Schaefer doesn’t know if one went to the Bureau

“All I know at this point is it appears from the internal documents that the Department of Revenue, before they produced the information, knew that it was a joint request from both.”

Schaefer says, that the Revenue Department and Highway Patrol knew the ATF wanted the list is what concerns him the most.

“We’ve had a couple weeks’ worth of hearings and we have heard nothing about ATF, anyone knowing that this was going to ATF, until we actually came across it in the documents.”

The letter Schaefer is referring to on Monday was read to the House Committee on Government Oversight and Accountability by Highway Patrol Superintendent, Colonel Ron Replogle. Replogle did not state whether information was sent to the ATF.

Asked whether it is appropriate for the Bureau or the Social Security Administration, both law enforcement agencies, to have access to that information, Schaefer says it might be on an individual basis. He says to use the entire list of more than 160,000 Missourians who have CCWs is profiling.

A request has been made to have a Social Security Administration investigator testify to the Senate Appropriations Committee, and the Senator says he plans to make a similar request to the ATF to find out if it received the CCW list.

Schaefer says the documents also reveal that the second disc sent to the Social Security Administration was not encrypted, as lawmakers have been told.

“Apparently it was just on an XL protected, password protected file, and the actual password was on a piece of paper in the package with the discs.”

That password was “MOccw.”

The development has caught the attention of Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer. In a statement, his office says Luetkemeyer has sent a letter to the ATF asking about how involved it was in what he calls a “scandal.”

See Congressman Luetkemeyer’s letter to acting ATF Director B. Todd Jones.