Tennessee Firearms Assoc. Inc.

Forgive me if this has been discussed [didn't find anything with a search], but have any of you received the new-style HCP cards?

Did we know that they would...

1. Be so ugly;

2. Have a magnetic strip on the back?

Why the strip and what info is offered to anyone who uses a reader? I don't have the new-style card but have been passed along a description.

...Zander

i have one of the new style cards. i don't know much about the strip on the back but if u were a guessing man i'd say it's my entire backround history and my info. age, address, SSN etc. etc.

I'll get my updated deal here in a month so I'll get to see how ugly it is.

I may be able to shed some light on this. I do not have that new design yet myself, but I've heard that the new driver's licenses are being done the same way. My sister lives in North Carolina and they already have the magnetic strips on the driver's licenses there. Supposedly, the same info on the card is contained in the strip. An officer can "Swipe" the strip in a card reader in his patrol car and the info is sent directly to the department. This is only to speed up the process and help keep errors down. The old way involved an officer "Calling In" your info and there was always a chance he would misspell something or jumble up a number. Then he'd have to wait to hear from the dispatcher. With the magnetic strip all that is eliminated. He can swipe the card and instantly, your data and status appears to him on a screen in his vehicle. Like I said, this is already being done in many states and is commonly found on both driver's licenses and gun permits. It will take a while to phase everyone in, but I would imagine when we renew our permits and our driver's licenses, we eventually will all have these new designs.

Excuse me if I'm not as sanguine as you seem to be re: the info that is automatically included in the database that any garden-variety state employee can access.

The Tennesssee SC has determined that, for instance, inclusion of a citizen's SSN is not allowed on state ID cards, whether driver's license or handgun carry permit or whatever.

What, exactly, is in the database that anyone, state employee or not, with access to my HCP can pull up on a screen?

I take this subject very seriously; it's not as if the state has a sterling reputation with regard to protecting the confidentiality of citizens' private records.

Once again:

What is in the database that is accessed when someone "stripes" my permit thru a reader? Further, if there is an illegal disclosure, what recourse do we have?

As an aside, I must confess that I'm somewhat dismayed that this subject is eliciting such poor responses/concern. I'm not a member of any tinfoil-hat brigade; am I overreacting here?

No Zander, I don't think you are over-reacting at all. But unless you can get an officer to actually "Swipe your card" for you and then show you what comes up on the screen, we will probably never know what is actually on the data.

I do know this: A truck driver friend of mine from North Carolina recently was stopped and they read the stripe on his driver's license.

He told me that they were able to tell instantly that he had a clean driving record, and that he indeed was the owner of that license. I asked him what was included on the magnetic stripe, and he told me the same info that's on the front of the card.

I'm sorry I can't help more than this. That is all I know. However, I wil say that I personally am not concerned about it unless somebody can give me reason to be.

Perhaps if somebody from this website has a police friend, they could get him to read their card and then report back to us what was found.

Guess I'll have to ask the deputies next time I shoot with them at the Williamson County range. After Christmas, unless someone can get an answer sooner.

I just got my brand new HCP the other day and don't have a magnetic strip on the back of mine. I do however have a 2D barcode along with a 1D barcode just like on the back of my new type license. Is that what you are referring to?

I've compared the barcodes and they look identical bit for bit from my HCP to my drivers license, though it is hard to tell with the 2D bars near the middle. The from the TDOS says that 2D barcode contains the same information that is on the front of the license. So I guess that most likely they do not include your SSN on it if you request it to be omitted.

The only way I guess to really know for sure would be to hook up a 2D barcode reader to a computer and scan your license. Barcodes are all written under a standardized format and if you use the correct 2D barcode reader it should dump all the information in it's raw format. Unfortunately the new 2D barcode readers are a lot more expensive than the old 1D ones so you would have to be pretty dedicated to the cause.[/url]