Budget writers in the Missouri Senate turned their attention Thursday to the Highway Patrol and the Department of Public Safety as they continue to question why the state’s list of conceal-carry weapons holders was given to the federal government.
Colonel Ron Replogle testified that the Patrol received a request for the list in November of 2011 from the Social Security Administration, which was conducting a fraud investigation.
“And our employees felt this was a legitimate criminal investigation, so therefore they released the information,” Replogle said.
Public Safety Deputy Director Andrea Spillars also told the committee that the release of the CCW list was legal. Committee chairman Kurt Schaefer disagrees.
“Asking for that data in batch form so that it can be profiled for other reasons, that is intelligence gathering, in my opinion,” Schaefer said.
When asked later by reporters if anyone should lose their jobs over what happened, Schaefer said, quote, “that’s something also that we’re looking at.”
The revelation that the CCW list was sent to the feds came during testimony Wednesday into the Department of Revenue’s policy of scanning source documents of driver’s license and conceal-carry applicants.
