Sheriff denies request for concealed-weapons data

In another case of a sheriff refusing to uphold a law because he doesn't agree with it, the sheriff of Ohio County, West Virginia (Wikipedia map), is refusing a request by the local newspapers for a list of all residents who have received a permit to carry concealed deadly weapons, records that are open to the public under state law, Corey Hutchins reports for Columbia Journalism Review.

A similar case occurred last year in Cherokee County, North Carolina, leading to the publisher formally apologizing for the editor asking for the names of permit holders, and the editor subsequently resigning.

Ohio County Sheriff Patrick Butler "acknowledged in a recent interview with a local TV station that the permits have been 'ruled… a public record,'" Hutchins writes for CJR. He told Hutchins, “I disagree with that and I am going to disagree with that until the day I’m out of office. We’re prepared to fight it all the way.” Butler says the paper hasn't provided him with a good enough reason to release the names.

Mike Myer, editor of The Intelligencer and the Wheeling News-Register, sister papers, said they have no plan to publish the names, but "want the public information so they can evaluate whether local sheriffs are handling the permitting process properly," Hutchins writes. "In West Virginia, county sheriffs are in charge of granting and revoking permit." Myer said, “Guns are part of our state. The newspaper industry isn’t anti-gun—we’re just against hiding information from the public.” Legislation was recently proposed in West Virginia to make records of permit holders private.

Butler called the request an invasion of privacy, and even went so far as to say that if the list was published, people who don't own guns could be at risk, because criminals would know they are unarmed. He also called the request personal, stating that he doesn't have a good relationship with the paper. (Read more)