Riverside County Sheriff to work with legislators to privatize concealed carry permit information

Applying for a concealed carry weapon permit requires gun owners to provide personal information as part of the process. 

Some people may not be aware that that information could be subject to public release under the California Public Information Act.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco criticized the law, after having to comply with a public records request received on September 9, 2022 from Viacom-CBS, which asked for the names of all CCW permit holders in the county.

In October, Bianco sent a letter to all CCW permit holders in Riverside County that informed them of his actions, and pointed to legal analysis which determined there were no "valid exemptions the Department could use in order to exempt the names of concealed weapon permit holders."

“It’s nobody’s business whether or not someone has a concealed weapon," according to Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.

Unless exempted by law, much of the information on the applications of all CCW permit holders in the county can be publicly accessible. 

According to data from the California Justice Department, 29,558 CCW permits were issued in Riverside County between 2012 and 2021.

Freedom of information advocates have long fought to ensure the law stays intact.

“The fundamental premise of the Public Records Act is that there has to be government transparency and that the public has to have the right to oversee that government and be able to access important information," according to Brittney Barsotti, General Counsel at the California News Publishers Association.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Bianco believes CCW permit holders’ information should be private for safety reasons.

“If you’re a criminal and you want to find a gun breaking into a house you just go to that database leak from DOJ and they’re telling you where all of them are,” said Bianco.

Brittney Barsotti said state lawmakers have previously argued otherwise. 

“without having access to that information, such as an address, it's impossible to verify whether those permits are being properly issued or not under the law," according to Barsotti. 

That precedent was established by the California Supreme Court’s ruling in a case from 1986. 

Meanwhile, Sheriff Bianco isn’t backing down.

“We are going to work with some of our legislators, current legislators for next year’s bills and we’re going to try to get something that gets on the books that protects people’s information,” according to Bianco.

A bill of that nature, which was never signed into law, was introduced in 2015.

The author of AB 1154 argued that it would, “provide that the California Public Records Act shall not be construed to require the disclosure of the home address information, as specified, and telephone numbers of applicants that are set forth in applications to carry firearms or of licensees that are set forth in licenses to carry firearms, as specified.”

The California Broadcasters Association and the California News Publishers Association both opposed the bill.