Newspaper Publishes Gun Owners' Names and Addresses

Jiro said:
I see. ignorance must be a bliss then.

but you don't care to read this, right?

http://www.justice.gov/usao/ut/psn/documents/guncard.pdf
ATF Online - Laws, Regulations & Rulings - Laws
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Quote from the first link:

[FONT=Arial,Bold][FONT=Arial,Bold][FONT=Arial,Bold]VI. KNOWINGLY POSSESS OR MANUFACTURE:[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]​

[FONT=Arial,Bold][FONT=Arial,Bold]18 USC § 922(k), (o) & (v); 26 USC § 5861. [/FONT][/FONT]
Punishable by up to 5 or 10 years imprisonment, depending upon specific violation.​

A. Any [FONT=Arial,Bold]machine gun, fully automatic firearm [/FONT]or any part designed or intended exclusively for use in such weapon;
B. Any [FONT=Arial,Bold]firearm silencer[/FONT], including any device, or part thereof, designed to silence, muffle or diminish the report of a firearm;
C. [FONT=Arial,Bold]Sawed-off shotgun [/FONT]with a barrel length of less than 18" or overall length less than 26";
D. [FONT=Arial,Bold]Sawed-off rifle [/FONT]with a barrel length of less than 16" or overall length less than 26";
E. [FONT=Arial,Bold]Destructive device[/FONT];
F. [FONT=Arial,Bold]Semi-automatic assault weapon [/FONT]manufactured after October 1, 1993; [FONT=Arial,Italic]OR[/FONT]
G. Any firearm which [FONT=Arial,Bold]lacks a serial number [/FONT]or contains an [FONT=Arial,Bold]altered or obliterated serial [/FONT][FONT=Arial,Bold]number[/FONT].
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CrazyPaul said:
Quote from the first link:
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I noticed that and I thought it was strange so I double-checked with US Code. yep it's wrong.

From the first link - it cited "18 USC § 922(k), (o) & (v); 26 USC § 5861" so I checked and this is what the current USC said -

18 U.S.C. § 922 : US Code - Section 922: Unlawful acts
18 U.S.C. § 922 : US Code - Section 922: Unlawful acts

(k) It shall be unlawful for any person knowingly to transport,
ship, or receive, in interstate or foreign commerce, any firearm
which has had the importer's or manufacturer's serial number
removed, obliterated, or altered or to possess or receive any
firearm which has had the importer's or manufacturer's serial
number removed, obliterated, or altered and has, at any time, been
shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce.

(o)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), it shall be unlawful
for any person to transfer or possess a machinegun.
(2) This subsection does not apply with respect to -
(A) a transfer to or by, or possession by or under the
authority of, the United States or any department or agency
thereof or a State, or a department, agency, or political
subdivision thereof; or
(B) any lawful transfer or lawful possession of a machinegun
that was lawfully possessed before the date this subsection takes
effect.

(v) has been repealed
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26 U.S.C. § 5861 : US Code - Section 5861: Prohibited acts
26 U.S.C. § 5861 : US Code - Section 5861: Prohibited acts

It shall be unlawful for any person -
(a) to engage in business as a manufacturer or importer of, or
dealer in, firearms without having paid the special
(occupational) tax required by section 5801 for his business or
having registered as required by section 5802; or
(b) to receive or possess a firearm transferred to him in
violation of the provisions of this chapter; or
(c) to receive or possess a firearm made in violation of the
provisions of this chapter; or
(d) to receive or possess a firearm which is not registered to
him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record; or
(e) to transfer a firearm in violation of the provisions of
this chapter; or
(f) to make a firearm in violation of the provisions of this
chapter; or
(g) to obliterate, remove, change, or alter the serial number
or other identification of a firearm required by this chapter; or
(h) to receive or possess a firearm having the serial number or
other identification required by this chapter obliterated,
removed, changed, or altered; or
(i) to receive or possess a firearm which is not identified by
a serial number as required by this chapter; or
(j) to transport, deliver, or receive any firearm in interstate
commerce which has not been registered as required by this
chapter; or
(k) to receive or possess a firearm which has been imported or
brought into the United States in violation of section 5844; or
(l) to make, or cause the making of, a false entry on any
application, return, or record required by this chapter, knowing
such entry to be false.
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my apology for giving you a link with error. this one is a good start - http://www.nraila.org/gun-laws/articles/2004/citizen`s-guide-to-federal-firearms-law.aspx?s=&st=&ps=
 
lol!!!

After newspaper's gun-permit map, blogger posts journalists' addresses - CNN.com
New York (CNN) -- A blogger has posted the home addresses of staffers from a newspaper after the paper published an online, interactive map showing names and addresses of all handgun permit-holders in New York's Westchester and Rockland counties.

Christopher Fountain, who is also a gun owner, spoke to CNN's "Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien" on Thursday to explain his reasoning behind the posting. "I felt they were using this to harass gun owners," Fountain said of the newspaper's staff. "So I harassed them back."

Fountain posted the name, home address and phone numbers of the Journal News' publisher, editor, visual editor and several other staff members. Fountain told CNN's "Early Start" that he was offended by the newspaper's actions and "wondered how they would like it if their addresses were published."

The map published by the Journal News on Saturday allows readers to zoom in on red dots that indicate which residents in the two New York counties are licensed to own pistols or revolvers. It has prompted more than 2,300 comments as of Thursday.

Janet Hasson, president of the Journal News Media Group, defended the decision in a statement on Wednesday.

"One of our roles is to report publicly available information on timely issues, even when unpopular. We knew publication of the database (as well as the accompanying article providing context) would be controversial, but we felt sharing information about gun permits in our area was important in the aftermath of the Newtown (Connecticut) shootings," she said.

Although Fountain's own address was not among those published by the Journal News, he told CNN he believes they were "conflating legal gun owners" with the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that claimed the lives of 20 children and 6 staffers on December 14.

Fountain's blog is called "For What It's Worth," and he currently is a real estate agent in Greenwich, Connecticut. The post, entitled "Sauce for the goose or, home address and phone number of Journal News publisher," had prompted more than 500 comments as of Thursday.

Calls by CNN on Thursday to the Journal News for comment were not immediately returned.
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map of journalists' addresses - http://www.newrochelletalk.com/content/map-where-are-journal-news-employees-your-neighborhood
 
Yes, they published public information. But what they did was irresponsible. They now showed those wanting to steal a gun exactly where to go. And they showed those wanting to rob a home who the easier target is: the home without the gun. It was just an irresponsible and sensationalistic thing to do. Not to mention that it created an even larger divide now between those disagreeing on gun control. Additionally, the Newtown shooter stole the guns from his mother. He was not a gun owner.
 
Ex-Burglars Say Newspaper
Reformed crooks say the New York newspaper that published a map of names and addresses of gun owners did a great service – to their old cronies in the burglary trade.

The information published online by the Journal-News, a daily paper serving the New York suburbs of Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties, could be highly useful to thieves in two ways, former burglars told FoxNews.com. Crooks looking to avoid getting shot now know which targets are soft and those who need weapons know where they can steal them.

“That was the most asinine article I’ve ever seen,” said Walter T. Shaw, 65, a former burglar and jewel thief who the FBI blames for more than 3,000 break-ins that netted some $70 million in the 1960s and 1970s. “Having a list of who has a gun is like gold - why rob that house when you can hit the one next door, where there are no guns?

"What they did was insanity," added Shaw, author of "License to Steal," a book about his criminal career.

The newspaper published the online map last month alongside an article titled, "The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the weapons in your neighborhood." The map included the names and addresses of pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

While the paper ostensibly sought to make a point about gun proliferation in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., the effort backfired. A blogger reacted with a map showing where key editorial staffers live and some outraged groups have called for a boycott of parent company Gannett’s national advertisers. Ironically, the newspaper has now stationed armed guards outside at least one of its offices.

“They just created an opportunity for some crimes to be committed and I think it’s exceptionally stupid,” said Bob Portenier, 65, a former burglar and armed house robber turned crime prevention consultant.

Professional burglars are always looking for an edge, and like most folks, they read the paper, said Portenier.

“Criminals are always looking for opportunity and words travels through the grapevine—burglars trade secrets and when you see something like that in the paper, that’s is something burglar’s are going to talk about,” Portenier said. “‘Did you see in the paper where all these people have guns and their addresses?’ and that kind of stuff, they’ll say.”

While some burglars may use the newspaper’s information to avoid guns, Portenier said others will target homes with guns. The newspaper’s decision could even lead to legally-owned guns proliferating on the street, he said.

“That’s one of the first things we’d check out—guns are on the top of the list of what you want to steal,” he said. “They can walk out with a shotgun and a couple of handguns and sell them on the street for $300 or $400 a pop. They can sell them to a gangbanger who ends up killing someone."

Frank Abagnale, who was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2002 film “Catch Me if You Can,” and is perhaps the most famous reformed thief to ever earn a legitimate living by offering the public insight into the criminal mind, called the newspaper’s actions “reprehensible.”

“It is unbelievable that a newspaper or so called journalist would publish the names and addresses of legal gun owners, including federal agents, law enforcement officers and the like,” said Abagnale, who noted that he grew up in the suburban New York area served by the Journal-News. “This would be equivalent to publishing the names of individuals who keep substantial sums of money, jewelry and valuables in their home.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/n...n-permit-records-from-journal-news.html?_r=2&
A newspaper based in White Plains that drew nationwide anger after publishing the names and addresses of handgun permit holders last month is being guarded by armed security personnel at two of its offices, the publisher said Wednesday.

The increased security comes as the newspaper, The Journal News, has promised to forge ahead with plans to expand its interactive map of permit holders to include a third county in the suburbs of New York City, and local officials there have vowed to block the records’ release.

The armed guards — hired from local private security companies — have been stationed in The Journal News’s headquarters and in a satellite office in West Nyack, N.Y., since last week, said Janet Hasson, the president and publisher of The Journal News Media Group.

“The safety of my staff is my top priority,” Ms. Hasson said in a telephone interview.

The newspaper prompted a national discussion and a torrent of rage online after it published an interactive map of handgun permit holders in Westchester and Rockland Counties on its Web site last month. The Journal News had gathered the information from public records after the school shooting in nearby Newtown, Conn.

Ms. Hasson declined to elaborate on any specific threats to the newspaper’s staff, beyond saying that the permit map had precipitated the security precautions. She did not describe the number of guards or the guns they were carrying.

But an editor at the West Nyack office told the local police that the newspaper had received “a large amount of negative correspondence” related to the publication of the map, according to a police report highlighted by The Rockland County Times on Tuesday. The police report said that e-mails received did not contain threats and that armed guards from a private security firm had not reported any problems at the office.

Despite the anger at the newspaper’s employees — some have had their addresses mapped by bloggers in retaliation — Ms. Hasson said the newspaper would continue to seek permit information for Putnam County.

But officials there, including the county clerk and a state senator, have said they intend to block the release of permit information.

The senator, Greg Ball, a Republican who represents the area, lashed out at the “asinine editors” at The Journal News who, he said, “have gone out of their way to place a virtual scarlet letter on law-abiding firearm owners throughout the region.”

“I thank God that Putnam County has a clerk with the guts to stand up and draw the line here,” Senator Ball said. “This is clearly a violation of privacy and needs to be corrected immediately.”

The county clerk, Dennis J. Sant, said he and other officials were meeting on Wednesday to discuss legal options for stopping the release of the permit information and would hold a news conference on Thursday.

“When these laws were conceived, there was no social media, there was no Google maps,” he said.

Mr. Sant said permit holders were “upstanding citizens” like retired police officers and doctors. “I can’t put these people in harm’s way like this,” he said.

Ms. Hasson said that despite the hectic atmosphere and increased security at The Journal News offices, the newspaper would go to court if necessary to obtain the public records. “Right now they’re denying it,” she said of Putnam officials. “We’re conferring to see what the next steps are.”

It was unclear whether the county officials had the authority to block the release. The permits are public records that were requested by the newspaper using the state’s Freedom of Information Law.

Robert Freeman of the State Committee on Open Government said the officials would be breaking the law if they refused to release the records.

The name and address of any handgun permit holder “shall be a public record,” he said, reading a section of New York State law. “In my opinion,” he added, “there is not a lot of room for interpretation.”
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um....

“The safety of my staff is my top priority,” Ms. Hasson said in a telephone interview.
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ok..... and Ms. Hasson is not concerned with the safety of law-abiding citizens? I see.
 
http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013301040078&nclick_check=1
CARMEL — Two state legislators are vowing to press for a law that would make information contained in a pistol permit application confidential and not subject to the state’s open-record laws.

State Sen. Greg Ball, Republican of Patterson, and Assemblyman Steve Katz, R-Yorktown, detailed their intention at a news conference Thursday at the Putnam County Courthouse.

The news conference was the latest response to the intense controversy that has followed the Dec. 23 publication by The Journal News of the names and addresses of pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties. The information was published in an interactive map on the newspaper’s website, LoHud.com, and accompanied a story about what information was and was not public about gun ownership.

The report has generated a fierce debate over what information should be public regarding gun owners, what ought to remain private and the context in which those decisions should be weighed.

“We have received calls from victims of domestic violence,” Ball said. “We have a Journal News editorial board that has created an interactive map that allows those who seek to harm these people a way to their doorstep.”

The map is not searchable by name, meaning an abusive ex-husband or former partner could not input a domestic violence victim’s name who is a permit holder and find out that person’s address.

Putnam County Executive MaryEllen Odell vowed to fight the newspaper’s open-records request for her county’s database.

“We firmly believe the release would create an unprecedented public safety issue,” Odell said. “I also want everyone to understand that we intend to take this process to the very end, wherever that process leads up to.”

The state Committee on Open Government has said the information is public. It’s stated as such under the penal law covering licensure, which was last amended by the state Legislature in 1994 and now reads “the name and address of any person to whom an application for any license has been granted shall be a public record.”

As of Thursday, there had been no written denial of The Journal News’ request, according to Deputy County Clerk Michael Bartolotti. The county initially told the paper it was compiling the data but would need more time. It estimated there were 11,000 permit holders in Putnam, a county of roughly 99,933 people, according to the U.S. census.

“As I said when this decision was first announced, we’re troubled that county officials have apparently switched their position on releasing the data,” Journal News President and Publisher Janet Hasson said in a statement.

“We take seriously our obligation to serve the residents of Putnam County and will aggressively pursue the community’s right of access to public record information.”

Katz criticized the newspaper for not clarifying why it had released the data.

“The Journal News has really come up with the perfect map for the perpetrators and for the stalkers and for the criminals,” Katz said. “They have yet to give us a cogent reason why, except for the reason that they can. I am sorry — that is not acceptable.”

The Journal News decided to share information about gun ownership in its coverage area after the Newtown, Conn., massacre.

A handful of bills have been introduced in the state Legislature in recent years that would limit access to the information in the gun-permit databases to law enforcement officials. None have become law.

Ball said he intended to work with the sportsman and gun-control caucuses “to try to pull both forces together from a privacy perspective.”

Putnam County Clerk Dennis Sant argued that sunshine laws written 30 years ago never foresaw the online mapping innovations that make it possible to search for a street-view image of the gun-permit holder’s home.

“This has been a very emotional time for this county clerk,” Sant said. “I’ve served here for 35 years. I am a man who follows the rule of law. We are not talking about the rule of law anymore. We are talking about endangering citizens.”

The county’s decision to deny the request could potentially cost its taxpayers.

In 2006, the state Legislature gave courts expanded authority to grant attorneys fees to applicants if the court finds there was “no reasonable basis for denying access,” said Robert Freeman, executive director of the state Committee on Open Government.

The city of Albany in 2012 was ordered to pay $70,000 to the Times Union for refusing to release information involving parking tickets.

A 1981 decision by the state Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, upheld the right of The Wall Street Journal to obtain gun-ownership data.

“There are times when just saying ‘No’ doesn’t work,” Freeman said. “Anybody has the right to do what The Journal News has done.”

The Journal News is not the first newspaper that has faced withering criticism for posting — or even just seeking — pistol permit data.

In 2008, the Glens Falls Post-Star was deluged with emails, letters and calls after its request for an upstate county’s database was leaked.

Post-Star Editor Ken Tingley said he was surprised by the response, particularly because the paper had sought the information only as part of a larger exercise in seeking databases subject to open-records laws.

The paper never had any specific plans to publish the gun-permit data, he said. It never did.

In Virginia, a 2007 report in The Roanoke Times prompted the state to enact a law barring access to the statewide database, though records have remained available at the circuit courts where they were issued.

A spokesman for the nonprofit Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press said keeping open the gun-permit database and others like it serves the public interest.

“I think that it’s important that any time the government is in the business of licensing individuals in any way, that the public has some oversight on that,” Freedom of Information Director Mark Caramanica said, “to make sure people who are not entitled to possess firearms are not being granted that right.”
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Jiro said:
Ex-Burglars Say Newspaper
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So Dhb was right about that in the first place. IMO, if anyone who got info from that newspaper breaks in a house where there is no gun permit holder, the resident/tenant/home owner can sue the newspapers. Just wait and see.

What's more, they would have to buy a security system installed in their home because the newspaper fucked it up.
 
CrazyPaul said:
Txgolfer said that it's public information which is not a violation of privacy.

I am lost.
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if you see nothing wrong with it, then I can't help you to see that it's clearly a gross misuse of public information.
 
CrazyPaul said:
So Dhb was right about that in the first place. IMO, if anyone who got info from that newspaper breaks in a house where there is no gun permit holder, the resident/tenant/home owner can sue the newspapers. Just wait and see.

What's more, they would have to buy a security system installed in their home because the newspaper fucked it up.
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just wait and see? no.... I'm not going to wait and see because I already know how irresponsible this is.
 
TXgolfer said:
No, It is a HUGE violation of privacy. But sadly, it is legal.
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So it's legal to publish public records but it's a violation of privacy???? That's a conflict of interest! I wouldn't worry about permit holders but I would worry about those who are not (just like myself).
 
CrazyPaul said:
So it's legal to publish public records but it's a violation of privacy???? That's a conflict of interest! I wouldn't worry about permit holders but I would worry about those who are not (just like myself).
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A) Look up "conflict of interest"
B) No.
 
CrazyPaul said:
So it's legal to publish public records but it's a violation of privacy???? That's a conflict of interest! I wouldn't worry about permit holders but I would worry about those who are not (just like myself).
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are you telling me you have absolutely no problem with Ms. Hasan's action?
 
Jiro said:
are you telling me you have absolutely no problem with Ms. Hasan's action?
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Are you fucking blind? See my like at post #70. I oppose her action because the newspaper let criminals/burglars know who don't have gun permits in those areas.
 
My kind of guy.....

Joshua Boston, Former Marine, Pens Response To Dianne Feinstein Gun Control Bill: 'I Am Not Your Servant'

The Huffington Post | By Cavan Sieczkowski Posted: 01/04/2013 12:59 pm EST | Updated: 01/04/2013 7:57 pm EST







r-JOSHUA-BOSTON-GUN-CONTROL-DIANNE-FEINSTEIN-large570.jpg






A United States Marine veteran has penned a response to California Sen. Dianne Feinstein's gun control proposal, saying the government has no right to take away his weapon: "I am not your servant. I am the person whom you serve."
Former U.S. Marines Cpl. Joshua Boston wrote a letter to Feinstein regarding her assault weapons ban, a proposal announced in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 20 children, aged 6 and 7, dead.
The letter written by Boston, who was deployed to Afghanistan in 2004, was first posted on CNN's iReport on Dec. 27.
Via CNN iReport:

I will not register my weapons should this bill be passed, as I do not believe it is the government's right to know what I own. Nor do I think it prudent to tell you what I own so that it may be taken from me by a group of people who enjoy armed protection yet decry me having the same a crime. You ma'am have overstepped a line that is not your domain. I am a Marine Corps Veteran of 8 years, and I will not have some woman who proclaims the evil of an inanimate object, yet carries one, tell me I may not have one.​
Boston goes on to say that he is not a "subject," "servant" or "peasant" and should not be punished because of the acts of an evil man. "I will not be disarmed to suit the fear that has been established by the media and your misinformation campaign against the American public," he writes.
Boston's anti-gun control letter has since gone viral, but he is not alone in his pro-Second Amendment sentiment.
"This gun grab, this attack on the Second Amendment, is just the latest in a long list of usurpations of our Constitution," RedState blogger Ulysses Arn writes. Alex Jones of InfoWars calls it "the effective END of the Second Amendment in America."
Feinstein's bill would ban the sale of semi-automatic weapons, strengthen the 1994 "Assault Weapons Ban" and tighten regulations for grandfathered weapons. “When you have someone walking in and slaying, in the most brutal way, 6-year-olds, something is really wrong,” she told Fox News Sunday last month. “This is one effort and other things we should do to try to put weapons under some kind of appropriate authority."
 
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