I’ll never understand why some gun owners get bent out of shape when someone posts the addresses of gun permit holders. It’s a public record, after all. Some gun owners defend their right to bear arms by saying their guns somehow “keep the government in check,” but the government already knows who has guns, so what’s the big deal?
And just what harm do gun owners think it will do to have their address listed? Do they think that it will somehow make them a target for burglary? Do you know of any crooks dumb enough to break into the home of someone that they know is packing heat? Isn’t that a bit suicidal?
There is already a ton of information out there on everyone. Everyone is in someone’s database, whether it be voter records, driver license records, criminal records, tax records, real estate records, credit records, medical records, travel records, credit card records, customer loyalty records, utility records, and on and on and on. Hell, some of us even give away more information by writing blogs.
Letting people know that you own a gun doesn’t make you any less safe, I probably makes you safer. Posting the info of those who point to already publicly-available information – doing everyone a favor by reminding us how documented our lives already are – only makes gun enthusiasts look petty and vindictive. That’s not the image gun owners should be trying to cultivate.
I’ve always been under the impression that publishing someone’s home address was a hostile act, targeting them for some kind of negative attention. That negative attention may not be a life threatening criminal act that could be defended against with a gun, it may be “just” strong harassment.
There’s also a huge difference between data that we elect to give up, and data you’re forced to give up, as well as the difference between data passively sitting in multiple databases that has to be queried, and people proactively selecting addresses and pushing them out via the most public means possible.
How would it be received if the list was of people with no gun and/or no burglar alarm? Or who were of a particular religion — after all you could sit outside their mosque/church/temple on public land and catalog them. or fill in the blank yourself. Sometimes flipping the situation around 180 can be telling.
Disclaimer – I don’t own a gun, and I have no issues with people who do.
Update:
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2013/01/02/newspaper-hires-armed-guards-after-publishing-gun-owner-addresses-n1477708
“According to police reports on public record, Journal News Rockland Editor Caryn A. McBride was alarmed by the volume of “negative correspondence,” namely an avalanche of phone calls and emails to the Journal News office, following the newspaper’s publishing of a map of all pistol permit holders in Rockland and Westchester.
Due to apparent safety concerns, the newspaper then decided to hire RGA Investigations to provide armed personnel to man the location.”