Secret guns

There's a move afoot in the Legislature to close gun records, according to the Tennessean. http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080326/NEWS0201/803260429

One opponent argues thus: "This is information about who is being licensed to have a special permit in your state, through an agency paid for with your taxpayer dollars," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of The Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press, based in Virginia. "Why wouldn't you want to know that?"

I'm no fan of guns, but his appeal to the use of taxpayer dollars doesn't mean anything goes. If I'm treated at a public facility for chest pains, that doesn't mean reporters have the right to my health information. I think the stronger argument would be over public safety. But it seems as if publishing the names and addresses of everyone who takes out a permit for a gun might increase gun theft, which is a huge problem itself.