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GUN RIGHTS

NY Paper Publishes Gun Owners' Names and Addresses

Newspaper now faces "fury" and a "backlash"

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by Mary Noble

Senior Editor t

Gun permits in Westchester County, NY / Image: Journal News

New York's Journal News has triggered "fury" (the Blaze) and a "backlash" (Fox) by publishing the names and addresses of legal gun owners in two New York counties.

Not only that, the Journal News supplies handy interactive maps (example in the screenshot above), which help readers to easily find and visit the exact location of each gun owner.

The maps give the addresses of all licensed handgun owners in Westchester and Rockland counties. They don't include long guns like rifles, and they don't indicate how many guns the licensee owns - if any.

The Journal News acquired the data via a Freedom of Information Act request, and they're working on getting hold of gun ownership stats for a third county.

Via the Journal News, Fox News, and the Blaze.
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Does printing the addresses of legal gun owners serve any good purpose?

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Comments (view in Forum)

  • Rocker
    !
    Ah shoot, I live in the TN country. You just take it for granted that every household has a firearm or 2. You can also take it for granted that they dang sure know how to use 'em too. Even the women folk (especially the women folk).
  • acchokiefan
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    @Rocker I love in TN too. The one thing you can count on around here though is constant STUPID. Show me the address of any homeowner with guns and I guarantee, if I wanted to, I could get those guns away from that home renter/gun owner. Also, it makes it easier to just walk up and shoot a gun owner in the face and tell the huge that he was going for his gun. I don't like the list, but it's coming anyway
  • u
    tomincali
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    well then should those gun owners look and see if the who doesn't have one to point out the easy victim or is it just placed so criminals looking for guns will know who's house to case and wait till they leave.
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  • PNWest
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    No this was a very poor call by the newspaper. I want to see gun control but things like this only encourage bad behavior. I don't want to see gun owners hassled by people who disagree with guns and I certainly don't want to see criminals have an easier job of stealing guns.
  • SavageMazx
    !
    Why is it everyone thinks that criminals are stupid enough to go to the houses of people that have guns? If a criminal were to show up at my house while I was home they wouldn't fair well. If they show up when I am not home, first the would have to get around the alarm system, then past the three dogs only to find a to of the line gun safe that they would need a crane to steal.
  • o
    bambi33
    !
    Does it serve a purpose? Indeed - it reveals that the legacy media is actively engaged in enabling, facilitating, condoning, and promoting, hostility toward good, peaceable, law-abiding citizens. This would seem to constitute grounds for revoking the newspaper's license. Oh wait - they aren't required to have a license to exercise their 1st amendment rights - unlike their victims who have a license to exercise their 2nd amendment rights. Perhaps there should be a newspaper article about that disparity - and the consequences of abusing a sacred right - I'll start holding my breath.
  • u
    Grubby
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    Kind of a naive answer. Criminals don't have to break into homes that have guns to steal them...there are plenty on the street. The thief is in extreme risk of personal injury or death if he is breaking in to steal guns from an owner who knows how to use them. The people in real trouble are the folks like you who do NOT have guns. The thief just got a directory of who does not have a gun. He can take your TV, stereo, jewelry, and anything else he wants, pawn them, and buy a gun on the street....all safely.
  • View all 7 replies >
  • frigginhell
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    then you don't know much. when they register their firearm it becomes a part of the public record. they have no right to privacy.
  • u
    captchaos69
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    @frigginhell You are right on, which is why gun registration is not a good thing. Not only do the street criminals know where to come and get your guns, but the elected criminals do too.
  • frigginhell
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    @captchaos69 I doubt very seriously that a street criminal would need to use the registration to come steal my firearms to commit a crime. Guns are far to easy to risk something like that and televions can be pawned and sold with more ease. The fact these firearms are registered makes them easier to trace when they do turn up in places like gun shops. Why risk being shot by the owner when you can just buy a gun with relative ease. Better to use the list to learn where to avoid. Not even that matters much. Where I live it's apparent that usually when you get robbed it's someone you know who did it. All you have to do is try and figure out which low life it was. Not that I hang with criminals but more that I live in an economically repressed cesspool populated by junkies.
  • Vance1
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    @Phreakwars

    public info? really , so where would they have gotten this so called public info from?
    When I purchase a weapon, My gun store doesnt advertize it.
  • martydotcom
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    You'll go nowhere trying to sue the new paper
    To create the map, The Journal News submitted Freedom of Information requests for the names and addresses of all pistol permit holders in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam. By state law, the information is public record.
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    Sonny
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    Doubtful...As was said that info. is a matter of public record...Yes it was dumb to publish that information, but I doubt that any legal action could ever come of it.
  • u
    captchaos69
    !
    The news (?) paper hides behind the first amendment to try to abolish our second amendment. A lawsuit probably won't get anywhere in a liberal court, so take it to the streets. Line up a bunch of pissed off gun owners in front of their headquarters every day for awhile with signs and shouting and cancel the subscriptions.
  • Sillpchs
    !
    I assume in general you are meaning sex offenders...there is a huge difference between anyone who has committed a crime such as that and a law abiding citizen. All this has accomplished was to put the lives of those people at risk by publishing the information. Now someone may remark about how they are gun owners, but that makes no difference.
  • PuroChorizo361
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    @Libertyiskey I don't think you know what Impartial nor Equal means. If the criminal is out in society most of their rights are just as equal as anyone else's.
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  • AnObserver
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    If there was any doubt as to whether the media is in on the fraud being brought down onto this country by the liberal Left, this should clear that up.
  • Heavy-Fed
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    Whoever did this needs to have their balls... or their uterus removed to prevent them from passing on their insanity. GREAT WAY TO INFLUENCE PEOPLE TO BUY UNREGISTERED WEAPONS!!!1
  • Phreakwars
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    You mean, great way to make most gun owners the criminal? Personal responsibility says if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about. By your reasoning, gun buyers are criminals.
  • Heavy-Fed
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    @Phreakwars What I am saying... is that they are giving people a reason to buy unregistered weapons. If they have the right to publish the addresses of registered weapon owners... you can bet that's not a published list that I want to be on.
  • Phreakwars
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    @Heavy-Fed It is public information. A would be criminal doesn't need to read the paper to find out. All the paper did was compile the list for the story.
  • Heavy-Fed
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    @Phreakwars GREAT! So, by your reasoning we could publish a list of all children in public schools, their names, ages and address. I can file a FOIA and get that information.
  • View all 7 replies >
  • u
    cpeter133
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    were you this pissy when anti-choicers published homes addresses for people who work at clinics that perform abortions, and their patients?
  • u
    LBaskins
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    @Coolvoter

    "They"
    Don't speak for everyone. I have conservative friends that didn't agree with that either. Not everyone is black and white.
  • u
    LBaskins
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    @Coolvoter
    This is the Internet. If you want a private discussion then make one...privately. Don't be simple minded enough to post on a widely public arena and get upset when, gasp, multiple people respond. Imagine that.
    You're right, how silly of me for understanding the difference between private and public.
  • View all 11 replies >
  • Thegrif
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    Well it sure tells bad guys where not to go, unless they want to risk being shot dead. If I wasn't a gun owner and I lived there I would be a little up tight right now.
    I am sure though they printed this info to try to ostracize gun owners. Even though this last mass shooting was not by a gun owner.
  • marine1
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    Gun owners should boycott that paper and those identidied should sue the hell out of them. It might be the right time to make all newspapers have legal accountibility for what they print.
  • Phreakwars
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    Sue them for what? Posting public information? Wow, newspapers should be sued for posting property tax delinquency's too then.
  • martydotcom
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    Gun owner are a tiny minority in Westchester. Not too many pins on map considering the Cty has nearly 1 mil in population 450 sq miles. (had. county home there for years when we lived in Manhattan. I don't recall ever seeing anyone packing
  • marine1
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    dig into the business and private lives of the newspaper and it people and do a little public expose^ of your own. they have secrets that they don't want known either.
  • Dan_Tien
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    Not only does it provide addresses where burglars might find a gun to steal, it shows where the houses are where people have no guns with which to defend themselves. The newspaper can be even more helpful by listing the homes with burglar alarms to avoid, along with insurance policy details listing the types and values of owners' property.
  • martydotcom
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    Dan if you wanted to get a list of Ferrari owners your state will SELL it to you so if you wanted to steal one you'd have no problem
  • Phreakwars
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    Yeah, next thing ya know, a would be criminal might just go down and look for this free public information themselves without reading it in the paper.
  • FollowTheMoney
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    @Phreakwars And that's their right. However this was done out of hatred and spite. This is a direct assault on law abiding citizens. This paper may be with in their rights, but that doesn't make it right.
  • o
    thejimbo
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    How about a map of the editorial staff and publishers of Gannett and Journal News with names and addresses of their families?
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  • RoyFloyd
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    BFD. Gun owners are proud, and most of them already have a "protected by Smith and Wesson" announcement anyway. Logically the the pro-gun crowd would support the paper's publication of which houses criminals should avoid.
  • o
    Republican5001
    !
    Does not bother me in the slightest. Let them know. I do have a question though, why isn't the newspaper not publicizing the editors, producers, managers, journalist, and owners personal information? We as the public, have a right to be informed.

    This is no different than Nazi's in Germany marking the buildings that were owned by Jews.

    Good going democrats. This is what you voted for.
  • u
    cpeter133
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    Because publishing a newspaper isn't a government license considered public information.

    I don't recall anyone voting for the newspaper's staff.
  • u
    Tolpuddle
    !
    Uhmm, sorry but I don't recall seeing any newspaper publishers, editors or columnists on any of the ballots where I voted. Btw, I'm a registered Dem and a big time gun owner and have a CCDW as well.
  • View all 11 replies >
  • bsking
    !
    it gives the average know nothing John Q public a clear insight into how the state run media operates in our newly, fundamentally changed Nation.

    this is design to unleash be useful idiots of the Democrats Socialist Party, the Occupy movement to descend on gun owners homes to harass and intimidate lawful Americans.
    and any violence that results from this is clearly on the hands of the leftist media.
  • Phreakwars
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    The average know nothing (as in, any idiot who doesn't realize this is PUBLIC INFORMATION), would be the only ones crying about it.
  • bsking
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    @Phreakwars que the moronic occupy'ers. see what happens. same tactic used against the one percenters...mob rule by hordes of idiots who need a good smackdown
  • Phreakwars
    !
    @bsking That's funny how you try associating Occupy protesters with liberals when CLEARLY there are TONS of Tea partiers, Republicans, conservatives, etc who are also a part of that. But in the bubble world your living in, that just isn't true. You know, just like the lie that Obama was gonna beat Romney, and that Romney was way ahead in the Fox News/Rassumusen polls, and we'd all see on election day... yeah, that's the bubble.
  • bsking
    !
    @Phreakwars there were no tea party people destroying property or shitting on cop cars or raping women . thats is distinctive socialist democrat behaviour. you kniw that.
  • Keyjo
    !
    Maybe it's legal. Yeah, it's public information.
    But it serves no legitimate purpose, accomplishes nothing positive. It may even promote an atmosphere of distrust and ill will.
    This was NOT a service to the public or community. The number 1 purpose is to sell papers.
  • u
    lochlomond
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    Judging from the maps, the newspaper might well be the instrument of its own demise. If even half of the identified gun owners are subscribers who perceive the public dissemination of private information to the general public cancel their subscriptions it could easily hurt them financially. Until there is legislation to repeal the second amendment, the fourth amendment protects their right to be secure in their papers, possessions and households. The right of the free press to report the news does not include criminalizing citizens who legally possess firearms.
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