TELL US: Should Licensed Gun Owners' Information be Public?
If you are licensed to own a gun, would you want your name and address publicized?
Photos
A news publication in New York is under scrutiny for publishing the names and addresses of gun owners in certain parts of the state.
Less than two weeks after the tragic shooting in Newtown, Conn., the New York Journal News earlier this week published the names and addresses of local gun owners in three New York counties.
A story titled, "The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the weapons in your neighborhood," highlights the names and addresses of residents who are licensed to own handguns through Freedom of Information Law requests, according to The Huffington Post.
The Journal News reportedly requested the information from New York's Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties, though the publication was only able to obtain the names and addresses of those who have a license to own a handgun.
The move has drawn considerable criticism from readers, some of whom claim the article has put those named in danger, as they could expose law enforcement officials who are licensed to own guns.
What do you think? Should the Journal News have published that information if it is public? Or has this compromised the privacy and safety of those individuals who are licensed to own guns? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
ralph
2:56 pm on Thursday, December 27, 2012
Two points. One: No, because it its an invasion of privacy. Police or authorities yes. General public, no. Two: Yes, if the bad guys know where the guys are with the guns, they're less likely to go to that persons house. He/she will go to where there are no guns.
TogTin Moses
7:28 pm on Thursday, December 27, 2012
No Way. No has the right to know this including, and especially Police. We are turning into a Big Brother Police State as it is. The last thing I want is some trigger happy cop showing up at my house ready to get into a gun fight. If you don't think it can happen, you are living in fantasy land.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=95475&page=1
Edward Tracy
7:33 pm on Thursday, December 27, 2012
No they should not be published. If a criminal needs or is looking for a gun you just gave him a directory of where to find one.
Thomas Rayner
7:37 pm on Thursday, December 27, 2012
It is nobodies buisness.
Look up history,isn't this how the NAZI Party started?
keith henry
10:16 pm on Thursday, December 27, 2012
Isn't it clearly visible, only a fool would ask for that information to be public, it undermines our ability to defend ourselves. Keep the bad guys in the dark!
Robert E
11:52 pm on Thursday, December 27, 2012
There is no licensing for gun ownership in R.I. the only licensing is for concealed carry. Requiring a license for gun ownership would be a violation of the R.I. Constitution.
Jay Down South in Dixie
10:19 am on Friday, December 28, 2012
One, if the information is not protected by the state's privacy laws, then publication of the information is not an invasion of privacy. The question is whether the information, private or not, about otherwise law abiding citizens was sufficiently "newsworthy" to publish. If the point was simply to dramatize how many people in a community own guns, statistics would suffice. Obviously, that was not the newspaper's intent, which shows a serious lack of judgment on the part of its editors.
Two, one should assume (I think fairly) that publishing the information on a community-wide scale, has potentially compromised the safety and/or the property of the persons named, regardless of whether or not their identities are protected by privacy laws.
Finally, Nazis didn't confiscate weapons from citizens. Nazis encouraged gun ownership among German citizens and repealed certain restrictions that had previously been enacted by the Weimar "leftists" in 1928.