Free Republic

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A top official in Gov. Jay Nixon's administration abruptly resigned Monday, becoming the first person to step aside amid a controversy over the way Missouri gathers information about people with concealed gun permits... --snip-- Long and other members of Nixon's administration have said those scanned documents are being kept on a state computer server and not shared with the federal government or other entities. But during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last week, the head of the Missouri State Highway Patrol said his agency had twice obtained a separate electronic list of concealed gun permit holders...

<p>Sacramento -- The U.S. Department of Justice has threatened to criminally prosecute California's top firearms official over the state's continued use of a federal databank to hunt down illegal gun users, The Chronicle has learned.</p> <p>The threat marks a significant escalation in the war between California law enforcement and U.S. officials over gun control and background checks. State officials said that until John Ashcroft became U.S. attorney general in 2001, California's use of the databank was not questioned.</p>