Privacy protection was at odds with the public’s right to government records as a legislative committee took up a bill Tuesday that seeks to block personal and identifying information about concealed weapons permit holders from public release.

But even as the Judiciary Committee’s hearing began, a middle ground surfaced in the form of an amendment that would block personal information but allow the release of aggregate data such as how many concealed weapons holders live in a certain town.

“There’s no harm in having aggregate data released,” said Rep. Corey Wilson, R-Augusta, who introduced the bill seeking to have the information restricted.

Wilson said he was prompted to submit his original bill after a New York newspaper posted an interactive map of area residents with handgun permits in December, leading to threats against some permit holders. The map appeared on the paper’s website in the weeks following the Newtown, Conn., school shootings that left 26 children and educators dead.

The issue reached Maine when the Bangor Daily News last month asked police departments across the state, through Maine’s Freedom of Access law, to provide names, addresses and ages of all of the state’s concealed-weapon permit holders.

The newspaper submitted its requests knowing that Wilson’s bill would forbid such disclosures, but said later it had no plan to publish personal information.

That did not quell concerns of some of those who testified Tuesday.

“As we all know, and has already been demonstrated, not everyone can be trusted with that very personal information, especially when it’s tied in with firearms ownership,” said Jeff Weinstein, president of the Maine Gun Owners Association.

But Wilson said he’s open to the middle-ground amendment. Also supporting it is the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, the hunting and fishing enthusiasts’ group that asked Wilson to put in his original bill.

At least 30 other states already bar the public release of personal, identifying information in concealed weapons permits, said Wilson and SAM Executive Director David Trahan.

Civil libertarians and press freedom advocates warned that closing access to public records goes to the heart of government transparency.

Shenna Bellows of the American Civil Liberties Union told the committee in a statement that citizens are entitled to know what their government is doing.

“The permit to carry a concealed weapon is a government document, representing a decision made by a governmental entity,” she said.

The president of the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition, Suzanne Goucher, said there may be legitimate reason in some cases to keep information in concealed weapons records confidential, but confidentiality could compromise the safety of some people, such as an abuse victim wanting to find out if her abuser has a permit.

“We as citizens cannot exercise oversight over that which we cannot see,” Goucher said. “Who will police the police?”

The Bangor newspaper’s request is not the only one for concealed weapons data. Requests have been filed on nine other occasions with the state police alone since 2005.

Lawmakers are under pressure to act on Wilson’s bill before April 30, the date a legislatively approved moratorium on the release of names of permit holders ends.