concealed carry permit Archives

State lawmaker: DOR scans a violation of law, Governor’s office behind them

July 25, 2013 By Mike Lear

The Chairman of a House Committee investigating whether Missouri law was violated in regard to the federal Real I.D. Act says it was, and says there is a connection to the Governor’s office.

Stoddard County Prosecutor Russell Oliver (left) questions a witness testifying to the Bipartisan Investigative Committee on Privacy Protection, as chairman Stanley Cox (right) listens.

A Missouri law enacted in 2009 opted the state out of the federal Real I.D. law. The Bipartisan Investigative Committee on Privacy Protection has focused on a new license procedure that included the scanning and retention of personal documents supplied by applicants for Missouri drivers’ and non-driver’s licenses and concealed carry permits. The committee’s chairman, Representative Stanley Cox (R-Sedalia), says that process violated state law.

“They say they didn’t have a purposeful design but they did things that were specifically authorized by not only Real I.D. directly, but also by the private agency that sets the standards and rules of it. If you put all that together, they were certainly implementing Real I.D. in many ways.”

The scanning and retention of documents has been discontinued except in some cases, such as for a commercial driver’s license.

The Committee’s members have asked numerous representatives of the Nixon administration, under oath, questions about whether Governor Nixon himself was behind the alleged implementation of Real I.D. Cox says none of them are talking.

“Certainly I believe that more than the Department of Revenue knew this. I think the Governor’s Office knew it. We just have to reach conclusions about who made the decision and I guess people are maybe going to have to draw their own mind when they look at the facts.”

The Committee will hold one more hearing in August. Cox says he wants to dig deeper into the fraudulent issuance of identifications to about 3,500 illegal immigrants from the St. Joseph License Bureau that resulted in nine indictments in January 2012. He says he’s run into a roadblock with the Revenue Department, though.

Policy Director to Governor Jay Nixon, Jeff Harris, testifies to the House Bipartisan Investigative Committee on Privacy Protection. Harris and five others were the targets of subpoenas by the House last month but did not appear. Those subpoenas were blocked by a judge.

“I had sent an open meetings request and they said they can’t give me any information about it because it’s an active, ongoing investigation.”

Cox says he’d be surprised to learn that the investigation is still ongoing.

“Based upon information we’ve received from a very reliable source, I think that investigation is long since ended. There’s been at least one federal prosecution, there was a guilty plea about a month ago … a sentencing of an individual up in St. Joe … and I don’t think there are any other investigations, but if there are we need to know the status.”

The Committee also has gotten to talk to all the individuals it subpoenaed last month that didn’t show up, after being advised not to honor those subpoenas by an attorney for the governor’s office. Cox says they attended the hearing voluntarily, but says they were not very cooperative.

“Generally not particularly forthcoming in regard to whether the chief executive had any clue about what was going on in the Department of Revenue, and they certainly all deny that anything that they did was a violation of he state law.”

Asked where Cox sees a definitive connection between the implementation of Real I.D. and the Governor’s Office, he says that will be detailed in the committee’s findings and report.

“I think the committee members generally have some inclination that the implementation of Real I.D. was in fact the goal of this administration.”

Cox also wants to call at least one more witness to talk about the Governor’s involvement.

“I haven’t picked the person’s name. Somebody in the Governor’s office.”

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.

Governor’s office: Revenue Dept will stop scanning concealed carry applicant info

April 16, 2013 By Mike Lear

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.

Governor Jay Nixon fields questions about the scanning and retention of applicant information by the Revenue Department’s Field Offices, April 3.

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.

Patrol Superintendent doesn’t like how concealed carry lists were released

April 16, 2013 By Mike Lear

The Superintendent of the state Highway Patrol has spoken his mind about his agency’s release of concealed carry permit holder information to the feds.

Highway Patrol Superintendent Ron Replogle

Colonel Ron Replogle is not happy about how the patrol turned over a list of Missouri’s more than 163,000 concealed carry permit holders to Keith Schilb, an investigator with the Social Security Administration. Replogle says he understands Schilb wanted to compare it to a list of disability benefit recipients for mental illness. Those who were receiving such benefits are barred by law from owning guns. Those who were found to legally own guns might be fraudulently receiving benefits.

“I am the head of this agency and I will take full responsibility for it going out in the manner that it did. I don’t believe that we have violated any laws. This was a law enforcement agency, a law enforcement officer conducting criminal investigation. Was this the best way to release the information? No it was not.”

Replogle says he would have preferred such an investigation look for specific names.

“If you have a list of people that you suspect are committing fraud I think that’s an accurate thing for them to look into. I don’t think anybody would want someone that has a mental incapacity to the point that they can’t work and they’re receiving benefits for that to possess a CCW … there is a better way of doing that investigation that I think would have been easier and better.”

He adds, “I have family members that are CCW holders. My wife’s in the process of getting hers, my son’s in the process of getting his, so I’m very in tune to protecting that information and I don’t like the way that we released it.”

Replogle suggests he would have asked for the Administration’s list of names so that the Patrol could make the comparison to the CCW list itself.

He says since he first learned of the list’s release several weeks ago, a policy change has been in the works in the Patrol.

“If someone were to ask for a batch list … that will come up through my office and be reviewed by staff, be reviewed by legal counsel, before anything is released.”

Replogle tells the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability he will work with the legislature to create statute to prevent the release of the entire concealed carry list in the future.

The Colonel also expressed his frustration with the Administration over the apparent release of inaccurate information on Friday.

The Administration told Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Friday that the second disc it got from the Patrol containing the list of concealed carry permit holders was opened could be read. That contradicted the testimony of Replogle, who told a Senate Committee neither of two discs were readable.

Replogle learned on Friday from the Administration that an erroneous report had been released.

“I wanted that corrected immediately. If it’s false information it’s got my name all over it, for one, and I don’t want this information with false information about me and what I’ve already testified to all over the internet all weekend long. I’m already concerned about some issues with that, and I demanded that be corrected immediately. For whatever reason they chose not to correct that until [Monday] morning.”

This morning the Administration’s Assistant Inspector General for External Relations, Jonathan Lasher, sent Missourinet this e-mail:

“On Friday, this office informed U.S. Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer and the St.Louis Post-Dispatch that one of our Special Agents had received two sets of data from the Missouri State Highway Patrol: a single unreadable disk in 2011 and two disks in January of this year that we were able to open and view. We have since learned that this latter information was incorrect. What was provided to our agent in January 2013 was also a single encrypted disk, and, as with the 2011 disk, our agent was unable to open it or view the data it contained, and it was destroyed. In sum, although this office twice received disks containing data identifying Missouri concealed carry permit holders, we were never successful in opening the files or viewing this data. We have a long and mutually beneficial working relationship with the MSHP, and we regret any confusion our earlier statement might have caused.”

In a statement, Congressman Luetkemeyer says he is “furious that the Social Security Administration would put out false information like this,” and says the Administration should verify information before releasing it. He adds, “I am now more determined than ever to meet with the Social Security Administration Inspector General in person and get to the bottom of this.”

The Chairman of that House Committee, Representative Jay Barnes (R-Jefferson City) says he doesn’t anticipate taking more testimony. Senator Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia), however, still wants a Senate Committee to hear from Schilb and his supervisor.

The Administration as of Monday afternoon says it has received no formal request for Schilb to testify.

Revenue director steps down amid document scanning controversy

April 15, 2013 By Jessica Machetta

The director of the Department of Revenue has resigned amid the controversy involving the illegal scanning and keeping of personal identification information for those seeking driver licenses and conceal and carry weapons licenses.

The Senate has launched an investigation into the document scanning, saying turning such information over to the federal government is not allowed under Missouri law.

Gov. Jay Nixon’s office says director Brian Long has resigned and deputy director John Mollenkamp, who has been a key figure in the investigative hearings, is taking over as acting director. Nixon spokesman Scott Holste says Long was not asked to step down, but that his letter of resignation says the recent investigation has taken a tremendous toll on his family life.

“I want to thank Brian for his service to the state of Missouri in heading up this department, and wish him well in his future endeavors,” Nixon said in a press release.

Mollenkamp, a native of Rolla, has served as Deputy Director of Revenue since 2011. Prior to taking that position, he was a clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School. Mollenkamp also served as an associate professor of legal writing at the University of Missouri School of Law. He was a Missouri assistant attorney general for several years, and also was in private practice in Joplin. Mollenkamp obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri and his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law.

Long has served as the director of the Council on Public Higher Education (COPHE) in Missouri, the association of the state’s public universities, since 2005. He also was the chief operating officer for Transit Casualty Company from 2002 to 2011, where he managed the daily operations of a $1.5 billion property and casualty insurance receivership. From 2001 to 2002, Long was the state budget director for Missouri, responsible for developing and presenting the Governor’s annual budget recommendations to the General Assembly. From 1990 to 2000, he worked in various positions in the executive and legislative branches of Missouri government. Long has a doctorate in geography from Syracuse University, and obtained his master’s and undergraduate degrees in geography from the University of Missouri.

He had been named Director of Revenue in December 2012.

Read Long’s letter of resignation.