FILE PhotoNASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Republican Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey is opposing a National Rifle Association-backed effort to block public access to the state's handgun carry permits.
Ramsey told The Associated Press that the ability to scrutinize the identities of people with handgun carry permits strengthens gun advocates' arguments that they are worthy of carrying loaded firearms in public.
Ramsey is one of the Legislature's top gun rights advocates and he's behind this year's bill that would allow gun permit holders to keep their weapons in their cars no matter where they are parked.
The last serious effort to seal the records passed the House in 2009 but failed in the Senate.
Republican Rep. William Lamberth of Gallatin, the bill's main sponsor, said he wants to protect permit holders' privacy.
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