So, let's see if we're following this correctly: An Oregon law firm is trying to track down the name of everyone in the state who has a concealed-weapon permit.

The reason? The law firm wants to rally support for a legislative change that would take concealed-weapon permits off the list of what's considered public information. So, in essence, the law firm is taking advantage of the state's public-records laws to gather support for a move to tighten those very same laws. The irony, of course, is delicious, but that's OK - it's not for us (or for government, for that matter) to judge the reasons why someone wants to access public records.

As it turns out, sheriffs and district attorneys across the state already are taking steps to tighten public access to at least some concealed-weapon information. They're responding to a ruling from a Jackson County judge that says, in essence, that people who hold permits for reasons of personal safety can ask that the information be withheld from the public - even though Jackson County's application form for carrying a concealed weapon told applicants that the forms were public records.

The Jackson County ruling is being appealed, but counties already are applying this new exception to Oregon public-records law. Sheriffs in Benton and Linn counties are changing their application form for the permits. Both Benton County Sheriff Diana Simpson and Linn County Sheriff Tim Mueller are adding a space to the form where people can specify if the permit is for personal protection. If applicants so signify, the names won't be considered public information.

People who already have the permits can reapply - and if they say they seek the permit for reasons of personal safety, their names, once part of the public record, will be considered confidential.

And that's the part of all of this that makes us most uneasy. Because of a ruling from one circuit judge, we now have a situation in which law-enforcement officials around the state essentially are taking it upon themselves to remove information from the public record.

It's worth remembering the incident that started this hubbub: A high school teacher in Medford insisted that she needed to carry a concealed weapon into her classroom to protect herself from an allegedly abusive ex-husband. A newspaper in Medford wanted to know how many other public-school teachers already had concealed-weapons permits. You can imagine that there might be considerable public interest in the answer to that question.

On the other hand, it could well be that there's a good case to be made to limit public access to concealed-weapon permits. It's not unusual to have clashes between the right to privacy and the right to access public records. But the place to adjudicate those clashes is in the halls of the Legislature or in a court with statewide jurisdiction, not by dozens of separate law-enforcement agencies working on their own.