AP catches Gov. Bryant's office hiding public records

You may recall that the Legislature recently passed a law exempting records of gun permits from Mississippi's Open Records Act. That came about in a fit of worry after press organizations began requesting those lists across the country. Whether or not you care about those lists being publicly available is immaterial to what the AP just uncovered surrounding the way in which Gov. Phil Bryant's office handled requests for those records.

For the record, I don't see any benefit to releasing the names of concealed carry permit holders. Total number? Sure, that matters for statistical purposes. But who benefits from knowing whether or not my neighbor has a concealed carry permit?

Anyway, the AP got ahold of the emails sent by Bryant's staffers in response to requests for the names of concealed carry permit holders. And what they found was an effort by the chief executive of the State of Mississippi to withhold public records.

It's bad enough that Phil Bryant has spent his first year in office trying to emulate Ross Barnett. Now he wants to be the second coming of Richard Nixon?