Journalists’ Addresses Posted In Revenge For Newspaper’s Google Map Of Gun Permit Owners

[Freddie Stubbs]

A week after the Newtown massacre, The Journal News published an interactive Google Map with the names and addresses of gun permit owners in select New York cities. The bold move has escalated into a transparency arms race, after a Connecticut lawyer posted the phone number and addresses of the Journal‘s staff, including a Google Maps satellite Image of the Publisher’s home. “I don’t know whether the Journal’s publisher Janet Hasson is a permit holder herself, but here’s how to find her to ask,” read Christopher Fountain’s blog post. The double irony here is that open data was heralded as a tool of enlightened civic dialog, and has been co-opted for fierce partisanship, bordering on public endangerment.

more: http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/26/journalists-addresses-posted-google-maps-gun/

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. "bordering on public endangerment...

I can think of a more pressing and consistent public danger, actually...

[Walk away]

2. I don't understand why these gun people are so upset.

I thought their gun were going to protect them. Aren't those of us without guns the ones who have to worry about being robbed? How does their skewed logic work for guns in schools? Does it make schools safer or just an easy place to steal guns and kill everyone? They really are the oddest group. I heard one actually say that the founding fathers didn't envision the press being able to have this information so that printing it should be against the law. Talk about instant karma!

[randome]

7. I'm sorry. Were you expecting reason and consistency?

Gun ownership is an emotional issue for too damned many.

[pipoman]

10. You really don't get it?

How about my sister who had to move to get away from a stalker who threatened to kill her several times. She bought a gun to protect herself. Now some asswipe wants to publish her name and address?

The publisher may have something to fear if innocent people are victimized because of their stupidity.

Further, the nonsense about it being public information neglects the fact that a freedom of information request must be made to get the information which leaves a distinct paper trail if someone does use public information to victimize someone else. No, this will lead to a closing of gun owners records as a privacy issue.

[Walk away]

14. How about if someone's child goes to play at your sister's house

Your sister decides to keep her gun ownership a secret and that visiting child is shot and killed by her unsecured gun . Didn't that child's parents have the right to know there was a gun in the house? Just because some asswipe wants to own a gun doesn't mean that the rest of us have to be subjected to it.

[randome]

22. Owning a gun does not make one an 'asswipe'.

pipoman pointed out a true example. Yours is hypothetical.

I wish no one owned a gun but publishing information just because you can is generally not a good idea. There will always be ramifications that one hasn't thought of.

[Resonance_Chamber]

25. True but I for one like to know what asswipes own guns

[naaman fletcher]

28. One of the reason I think posting gun-owners names will backfire

Is that people will discover vast numbers of their friends are "asswipes" who own guns.

You are really living in a secluded little world if you think everyone who owns a gun is an asswipe.

[Resonance_Chamber]

31. I just like the word asswipe and no not everyone who owns a gun is a asswipe

but I do like knowing that the racist liberal hating teabaggin loon asswipe next door has a gun or not.
Know thy enemy.

[naaman fletcher]

32. Ok...

I go through life just assuming that everyone has a gun. It makes me cautious in my dealings with people.

[Resonance_Chamber]

35. So the threat of being shot keeps you in line

mmmm ok

[naaman fletcher]

37. No...

I don't even think about it 99% of the time.

But, as I said, I just assume everyone has a gun and therefore one should never get into a physical altercation unless it is a life or death struggle.

[Resonance_Chamber]

39. you make no sense at all

you just said you behave because someone may have a gun and shoot you and deny it in the same post???????????????

[naaman fletcher]

40. I make plenty of sense...

It makes me behave in a certain way in very rare cases where I might otherwise consider getting physical.

[randome]

41. Good-looking women go through life in much the same way.

Everyone is suspect until you have evidence to the contrary. It's a good idea to ALWAYS have doubts about someone's intentions until you know them better. Some of my acquaintances -or yours- might be wife beaters for all we know.

[ehrenfeucht games]

53. Wow. That's really sad.

"I go through life just assuming that everyone has a gun."

[Walk away]

50. I'm not going to tell the whole story again but some asswipe with a gun....

was the cause of someone's child I knew being shot and killed. Sorry some woman had to buy a gun to feel protected. But now everyone knows not to mess with her and people with children they love and value can keep their kids away from her and her gun.

[SoCalNative]

54. Yes , it DOES make one

an asswipe. And many of us prefer not to have anything to do with said asswipes, so publishing addresses of these asswipes allows us to know when they're in our neighborhood and to steer clear of them.

[Bake]

58. Good luck expecting these people to stop their name-calling.

They are pathologically unable to do so, even though they have been told (and anyone with an ounce of common sense would know) that calling one's opponents nasty names doesn't do a damn thing to further rational dialogue.

They're not interested in rational dialogue, though. They just want to throw a fit and call names.

Bake

[pipoman]

23. The parents can ask

if they are leaving their kids at someone's house it would be reasonable to expect that they know the person well enough to simply ask if they want to know. No, the danger is to the gun owner who has credible threats...and now to the idiots who thought this was a good idea..karma comes a'callin'..

[Walk away]

51. I would never trust a "gun collector" to tell me the truth about anything.

Why would anyone so paranoid that they need to own a gun be truthful about it?

[pipoman]

60. How ridiculious

You may need an internship at a local law enforcement center or better yet a prison. Either there is a crime problem which makes perfect sense to make a plan to defend yourself, just as you have a plan to escape a fire or shelter for tornado which you have less of a chance of encountering than you have of being a victim of violent crime. Or there isn't a crime problem, in which case why do you care? Go on believing that 40% of the population are people who would lie to a mother about such a thing. Nonsense it is..

[Honeycombe8]

43. Oh, come on. That's a lot of IFs to get to that scenario.

I own a gun for protection. Calling me an asswipe makes me think you are an extremist and not to be taken seriously. If that's what you were going for, you succeeded.

I'm sure I could come up with some creative names to call you. But I'm better than that. Serves no purpose toward a substantive discussion.

[Walk away]

52. I just used "asswipe" in answer to the "asswipe" comment I was posting on.

I have actually never used the word "asswipe" before. I really think gun owners are paranoid nuts who want to own weapons but are, apparently, too afraid to admit it publicly.

[REP]

62. Adults having children over "to play" is a tad creepy

Actually, more than a tad. Why would you suggest such a thing?

[slackmaster]

11. Out of the thousands of people in those two NY counties, it's a safe bet that some of them...

...have acquired guns because they were being stalked or harassed by someone nasty, such as a former spouse.

[Walk away]

17. Well then the people who are stalking them will know they are armed. Isn't that the point....

of owning a gun? Making people stay away from fear of getting shot? Or is it just to wait around until they show up and shoot them?

[slackmaster]

18. The stalkers may not have even known where their victims lived before their names and addresses...

...were published by the Journal News.

That's the whole point.

[HappyMe]

21. NO!

Because NOW the stalker knows where they live!

[slackmaster]

26. It's amazing how so many otherwise intelligent people haven't thought of that.

[REP]

63. Very generous

"Otherwise intelligent" is exceedingly kind.

[Honeycombe8]

44. Frankly, it's no one's business WHY anyone owns anything that's legal.

We can assume that the person who owns a Rolex watch, a pistol, a Mercedes Benz, a pit bull, a German Shepherd, a Maltese has a good reason, in that owner's opinion, to own the animals or things. But in the end, the owner doesn't have to have any reason, and the reason is no one's business.

Just as it's no one's business why a woman wants an abortion after 10 weeks of pregnancy. If it's legal, it's legal, and ain't nobody's business.

If you don't want someone to own something or do something, you have to ban it. It's that simple.

[shintao]

42. Well yes indeed, lets publish the names of those with no guns

I see no reason not to publish registered gun owners, but I also think we should publish those without guns. Aren't they the ones wanting to take everybodys protection and saying they need no protection themselves??

Turn around is fair play, right? In fact I think non gun owners should be required to have a sign on their front lawn saying so. That way the police can quickly find the crime scene after the anti-gunner calls 911.

[Honeycombe8]

45. Guns aren't registered in my state. They're registered in NY? nt

[SeattleVet]

55. All handguns are,

and in some places (NYC) there is also a rifle/shotgun registry.

[Robb]

3. Trying to intimidate the press is a *brilliant* strategy.

That always works.

Ben Franklin had something to say about that, IIRC.

[pipoman]

4. LOL..Karma

[slackmaster]

6. Hey, it's all "public information"

[guardian]

38. That's why is should NOT be public information.

It is the perfect argument NOT to have gun registration or licensing.

[Honeycombe8]

47. The guns that won't be on that list are those that criminals bought or got...

or which people bought before being required to go through a background check or register, or that they bought from another individual.

So, it's only the law abiding gun owners who are on the list. Not the wacko who bought five assault weapons at a gun show from a guy named "Fred." And not the teenager Billy, who scraped together $200 to buy a pistol from a guy in the neighborhood called "the skull."

[Fawke Em]

13. Unless these journalists are paid by tax dollars, it's

not the same thing.

Karma isn't done, yet.

[pipoman]

16. Public information is public information...

are the gun owners paid by tax dollars?

[NCTraveler]

30. How many of the permit holders are paid by public tax dollars? nt.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

33. Google "Operation Mockingbird"

They say that it has been discontinued.

[Honeycombe8]

48. Your house is on Google Earth. How about a closeup on the internet

that includes your car parked out front, including its license plate number (which is public information)? With your family getting out of the car at the time? All public. You're on the street.

Legal? Yes. All that does is make it easy for millions to see what your neighbors and others passing by see. All of it is in the public domain.

Is this really what we want internet businesses and journalists doing?

[Fawke Em]

59. Apparently, you don't look at Google Earth much

No people are shown as identifiable. My cars have never been shown, nor my neighbors, to the point you can tell anything but their color and certainly not their license plate.

And, yes, I want journalists to be publishing public information. I used to do that when I was a reporter.

[Honeycombe8]

61. That's exactly my point. It's not illegal, but it was stopped because it's unethical and does harm.

I can get your tag #. I can walk up and stand in front of your house on your street and take pictures of it. Nothing you can do about it. It's legal. I can even post those pics on the internet. Legal. But not the right thing to do. Not ethical (unless you give permission).

I find it hard to believe you were a reporter...in one sentence you are saying, basically, that you agree it would be unethical to publish public information (if Google were to "publish" by posting a pic of your tag # on the internet), and then you say it is ethical if YOU do it ("you" being defined as a reporter).

Unethical is unethical. Right is right. Wrong is wrong. It's all legal, no matter who does it. That's not the issue. It's just not right to make a criminal's job easy for him by pointing the way or to push the boundaries of invasion of privacy...even if it's not legally invasion of privacy.

[Fawke Em]

12. I'm all for it.

[AngryAmish]

8. One side throws poo, the other side throws poo

And everyone is covered with poo.




Nice.

[slackmaster]

9. But it's really great poo

[mrdmk]

15. I am all for gun control and education. Here was the real problem

These folks who had their names and addresses published were NOT a news story. A news story is supposed to serve the public interest. What was served is a 'gotcha' to joe and jane q public. The only thing this publication did do was heap on more controversy to a subject that needs to be dealt with in an intelligent manner. Not throw shit onto people's faces...

Now we have a, 'tag, we're it' children's game!

[slackmaster]

19. News isn't news any more. It's now all "infotainment."

It's become a big game.

[NCTraveler]

29. I just posted similar sentiment in another thread on the subject.

It is the fox idea of creating news instead of reporting news.

[Fumesucker]

20. Uh oh.. Some folks who buy ink by the drum just got their feelings hurt

is called for.

[aandegoons]

24. Gun Nutters are nuts.

Expecting revenge and stupidity from them is like expecting to get wet when you jump in a lake.

[shintao]

46. LOL! Haven't you been following along?

You actually think anti-gunners are the sane ones? They can't even figure out that cars murder 3.5 times more people a year than guns, and far more children!!! LMAO!!!

Do you actually think the people you elected have no guns? Another crazy moment in the Anti-gunner thought process.

[bongbong]

57. LOL

> hey can't even figure out that cars murder 3.5 times more people a year than guns,

What's REALLY funny is that Delicate Flowers parrot easily-debunked Talking Points like that as if they convince anyone of their wacky and reality-deprived world view.

[NCTraveler]

27. Would be very interested in knowing if any of these "Journalists"....

are permit holders and removed their name from the list published.

[Fla_Democrat]

34. If not before,

they may be applying now that their information is on public display.

[Coyotl]

36. A map of every gun in town. Perfect resource for a burglar to avoid getting shot

or to steal guns! Nothing easier to sell than a gun in America.

[backwoodsbob]

49. Karma is a biatch

Karma

[NaturalHigh]

56. I'm cool with this.

In fact, I reposted the "journalists'" addresses and phone numbers several times just to make sure they got as wide a viewing as possible. What's good for the goose...

[cherokeeprogressive]

64. I've been trying to find a link to that map but can't. Does anyone have the link?

I understand Westchester County is home to literally THOUSANDS of retired LEO's. I think I'll compile a list of their names and addresses and sell it to some ex-cons I know in The City. That oughta be worth a couple of bucks at least.

Hey, everybody deserves an opportunity to make a living. Besides, compiling a list from a list that's already out there isn't against the law, is it? If it's not against the law, then it's obviously OK. And hey, it's all public information, right?

Maybe some of the ex-cons in The City know a retired LEO or two on the list because he busted them or put them away for a while. Maybe he just tuned 'em up a little. Who knows? Maybe they'd like to go pay a visit so they can thank that retired LEO for turning their life around. Good idea, huh? Or maybe they'd like to thank the retired LEO's wife/husband or kids when the retired LEO is away from home so as not to embarrass.

Or ya know what else? Maybe I'll find the psychiatrists/psychotherapists on the map and sell that list to people getting discharged from Bellevue.

Damn, I think I can really make some bucks with this.

Anyone got the link? I need to get started...

For the mind-numbingly stupid, here's this:

Surely there's someone so supportive of this map that they'd be happy to pass it along, right?