Blake’s Blog

Although this item’s sure to draw fire from the NRA crowd, it’s too tempting to resist.

The Tennessee Republican Party has made a public records request for information about the state’s gun permit holders during the very same week a Republican-sponsored bill to make those records private was defeated in the General Assembly.

For me, the bill was never about the Second Amendment. Whether a gun permit is a public record or not doesn’t have anything to do with restricting someone’s right to carry firearms. I’m sorry, it just doesn’t.

But as a journalist, I can see the value of having those records available to the public. If someone is involved in a school shooting or other heinous crime, wouldn’t you want to know if that person had a valid gun permit, when and where that permit was issued, etc., etc.? I know I would.

Bill Hobbs, the state Republican Party’s communications director, acknowledged there’s some irony in seeking the records after lobbying to have them sealed from public review. But, Hobbs explained, the Republicans want to use the gun permit records to expand their mailing lists and maybe increase campaign contributions.

Well, no sense letting principles get in the way of politics.

I guess you could say the Republicans were for restricting gun permit records before they were against it.