Senate Bill S2132

                                BILL NUMBER:S2132

TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the public officers law, in relation
to exempting the disclosure, under the freedom of information law, of
the name of any person issued a license to carry or possess a firearm

PURPOSE:  This legislation would exempt all persons name and address
who have a pistol permit from the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL)
other than law enforcement.

SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1 Subdivision 2 of section 87 of the public officers law; As
added by Section 12 of part II of chapter 59 of the laws of 2010, are
amended and a new paragraph (m) is added to read as follows: external
audits, including but not limited to audits performed by the
comptroller and the federal government OR are examination questions or
answers which are requested prior to the final administration of such
questions. (m) is information related to the issuance, pursuant to
article four hundred of the penal law, of any license to carry or
posses firearms; provided, however, that no provision of this
subparagraph shall be deemed to prohibit the disclosure of such
information to a law enforcement agency for the purpose of conducting
an investigation or prosecution.

JUSTIFICATION:  The recent abuses of the public access to New York
              

State's pistol permit registry due to the creation of virtual mapping
has created a roadmap for criminals listing the names and addresses of
those that have guns and by elimination showing those that do not.
This creates the ability for criminals to easily compile a target list
of victims from which they can steal guns or bring harm during an
attempted act of violence and or robbery.

The law is currently written to allow a FOIL request to be made at all
County Clerk's offices in New York for a listing of licensed pistol
permit holders names and addresses. Having these names and addresses
publicly available online creates serious concern for the privacy and
safety of all listed. It also endangers those who do not possess a
pistol permit by providing information to criminals of those not
protected by a legal firearm.

When initially established the Freedom of Information Law couldn't
possibly be written to factor in modern technology including social
media tools (Twitter, Facebook, etc) or advanced mapping technologies
like Google Maps. These social media advancements emerged as
commonplace tools to access personal information after many public
information laws were passed. The advent of the Internet must be
considered when working to ensure every citizen of New York has both
their privacy and safety protected, guaranteed by law.

The main priority in amending the public officers law is to protect
legal pistol permit holders in New York from the unwarranted public
disclosure of personal information. By updating the privacy
protections of law-abiding pistol permit holders of New York State to
meet modern realities.


New York will join a vast majority of states that protect the privacy
of legal pistol permit holders. This legislation maintains law
enforcement and prosecutors full authority to have access to
confidential information while protecting all law abiding pistol
permit holders in the State of New York.

Therefore, this legislation will block the public disclosure of legal
pistol permit holders names and addresses. Both permit and non-permit
holders will be more secure, while still granting law enforcement and
prosecutors access to information they need.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: New bill.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: None to New York State.

LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: None.

EFFECTIVE DATE:  This act shall take effect immediately.