N.C. sheriffs wage fight over gun records [View all]

[struggle4progress]

By Bruce Henderson and Cameron Steele
[e-mail]
Posted: Saturday, Mar. 02, 2013

... Following a public showdown with the sheriff in Cherokee County, a local newspaper editor quit last week after his records request – which was denied – made him the target of death threats. The county has the state’s highest rate of concealed-handgun permits.

In Gaston County, Sheriff Alan Cloninger responded Friday to a newspaper’s request for gun-permit records by withholding names and addresses of permit holders.

As the nation revisits gun control following the massacre in Newtown, Conn., the sheriffs embody another facet of the debate: What are we entitled to know, through public records, about our neighbors’ weaponry?

Very little, according to bills before the N.C. House and Senate. The bills, backed by gun-rights groups and the North Carolina Sheriff’s Association, would make handgun and concealed-handgun permits off-limits to the public ...

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/03/02/3889773/nc-sheriffs-wage-fight-over-gun.html