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SDPB Radio Coverage of the South Dakota Legislature. See all coverage and find links to audio and video streams live from the Capitol at www.sdpb.org/statehouse

Senators Reject Proposal To Restrict News Media

A bill preventing news media outlets from publishing names and other identifying information about gun owners was killed in the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday. The proposal came from Senator Jeff Monroe of Pierre, who says anyone who publishes such information should face a class one misdemeanor.
Monroe says one of his constituents asked him to sponsor the bill to prevent a situation in South Dakota similar to one in New York.
“It’s a bill that just was originally intended to make it difficult to do what was done on the East Coast, where in the paper was a large diagram with dots all over the diagram and showing locations and addresses of people that owned firearms, for some reason,” he says.
Monroe tells committee members that anyone wanting to post names, addresses, or photos of gun owners would have to get permission.
Jenna Howell, an attorney with the Department of Public Safety testifies against the bill.
“We have two main points that I want to raise,” she tells the committee. “The first and largest concern that we have with this is the constitutional implications. We believe that this is prior restraint in violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution.”
Howell cites three U.S. Supreme Court cases that outline when the government can and cannot prevent news media from publishing certain information.
Howell points out that state law already offers protections to gun owners. Government employees can’t release information about concealed weapons permits and can’t keep a list or registry of privately owned firearms.
After a discussion of what constitutes news media in this time of websites, Facebook, and Twitter, senators vote to kill the bill.
Senator Mike Vehle says he’s not anti-gun, but he doesn’t think the bill is necessary.
“I do not like the idea of infringing on the freedom of the press, and I’m afraid of what we’re going to end up here is a long legal suit,” he says. “And I don’t think we’re going to gain anything.”
 

This bill is one of several having to do with firearms that have been introduced this legislative session.