On Wednesday, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt alerted the public that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is preparing to illegally “harvest” the private information of Missouri concealed carry permit holders.
In a press release, Schmitt said he sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, urging the agency’s leader to “cease their attempts to illegally obtain information from local sheriffs on Missourians who have concealed carry permits.”
According to the attorney general, the FBI plans to obtain the information through a series of audits conducted at county sheriff’s offices across the state.
“The FBI has absolutely no business poking around in the private information of those who have obtained a concealed carry permit in Missouri,” Schmitt said in a statement. “The Second Amendment rights of Missourians will absolutely not be infringed on my watch. I will use the full power of my Office to stop the FBI, which has become relentlessly politicized and has virtually no credibility, from illegally prying around in the personal information of Missouri gun owners.”
Schmitt’s letter to Wray explained that the probe would violate Missouri law, which prohibits sharing information on concealed carry permit holders with any local, state or federal entity.
“It has come to my attention that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has informed several Missouri county sheriffs that they will be showing up in August to ‘audit’ CCW permit holder records,” Schmitt’s letter reads. “The FBI states that, ‘The audit includes an onsite review of your Concealed Carry Weapons Permits…’ Let me be perfectly clear. Allowing federal agents from the FBI to have access to records of Missourians who have a permit to carry a concealed weapon violates Missouri law and infringes on our Second Amendment rights.”
Schmitt vowed to fight the FBI’s “incompetence and corruption … tooth and nail,” and slammed the Biden administration for tarnishing the “reputation of this once well-respected agency.”
“Our trust in your agency is at an all-time low,” Schmitt wrote. “Here are a few examples of how the Biden administration and liberal ‘deep-staters’ within the FBI have severely tarnished the reputation of this once well-respected agency. You famously targeted the parents of school children who showed up to express their concerns at school board meetings. Unbelievably, somehow this was done as an alleged violation of the Patriot Act.”
“In addition to targeting parents, your agency has targeted conservatives, most famously the witch-hunt against President Trump and his team. James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and others endlessly investigated fake allegations fabricated by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic operatives,” he continued. “Yet while it persecutes conservatives, the FBI turns a blind eye to Democrats. The FBI inexplicably cleared Hillary Clinton of wrongdoing and has been sitting on evidence of criminal activity on Hunter Biden’s laptop for years.”
Schmitt accused the FBI of targeting Missouri gun owners and said the State of Missouri would “not stand for it” because Missourians “believe in the Second Amendment.”
“In light of all these facts, Missourians have concluded that the FBI leadership in Washington, D.C. has been weaponized for political gain. You have lost our trust and you seem to be completely indifferent toward trying to rebuild it,” Schmitt said. “Instead, you announce that you will show up at the offices of our elected Missouri sheriffs in open and blatant violation of our state law and seek to find out who in Missouri holds a legal CCW permit.”
“This is not going to happen,” he concluded. “I will fight you tooth and nail with all of the resources that the people of Missouri have given me as their Attorney General.”
