This is ones of the best media stories so far to highlight the hypocrisy of the anti-Second Amendment crowd. After publishing the names of pistol permit holders in Rockland and Westchester, a local newspaper with a pro-gun control bent has decided to hire armed guards because of the negative backlash it received. The paper’s competitor, the Rockland Times, has the exclusive:
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. …
The Journal News caused an international stir when they released an interactive map of pistol permit holders names and addresses in Rockland and Westchester counties last Sunday, December 23. The editors have said they believe knowing where guns are is in the public’s interest. The newspaper has also taken a strident editorial position in favor of strict gun control.
Rather than take the map down following the public uproar, the executive board at the Journal News has decided to “stick to their guns” and double-down on their original decision, as they have said a map listing all pistol permit holders in Putnam County will soon to be posted.
Note that the emails sent to the Journal News weren’t considered threatening enough for police to intervene, which is the why the paper ended up hiring private security. In places with strict gun control like the UK, where guns are prohibited even for private security guards, the Journal News would have been out of luck.
According to the paper, it was only publishing open source records that it felt were in the public interest. Obviously, it’s their right to print them for whatever reason. But it’s hard to understand how an interactive map of all gun owners in the area would benefit unarmed members of the public. The people who should be really angry about this aren’t the gun owners, but the non-gun owners. Criminals now have a map of every armed house they should skip in the neighborhood.
"Criminals now have a map of every armed house they should skip in the neighborhood." Along with a map of houses where they might be able to steal guns. I would say that everyone except raving anti-gunners have good reason to be upset about this. n nAnd note the typical hysteria by the paper. There was criticism but apparently no threats, but the reaction was "Uh-oh, someone who owns a gun disagrees with me. If they disagree with me, they are per se unreasonable, and if they own a gun they are would-be (if not worse) murderers, so I'd better get some armed guards."
"…pistol permit holders in Putnam County…" will be a map that arouses even more anger because Putnam County is where even more police officers, who are required to have a permit, live, because Putnam County is cheaper, and avoids a Hudson River commute.
Whenever you have MSM going against a large number of the Ameican people in general, and certain local people in their own vicinity in particular , you know the country has pretty much lost it's freedom, because then MSM determines the direction the elections and thus the country takes.
Exactly! Well said.
printing the list was quite ugly and ill-considered unless, of course, the primary consideration was generating publicity for the obscure little rag.
NY needs to do what MA did — the names and addresses of gun permit owners is explicitly NOT public information just because of concerns that someone would pull a stunt just like this. It is an explicit exception to the public records law. n nNow as to the immediate issue, I am thinking of a class action lawsuit by gun owners for "intentional infliction of emotional distress" — to their children. I've seen shakier lawsuits. n nAnd the question I ask is what if, instead, they had decided to publish the name and address of every woman who filed a rape charge? Forget not publishing names, let's say they explicitly went out looking for the names and pubilished them. Then what would people say?
The hypocrisy of this progressive aka democrat nee marxist print rag is mind blowing! They hate guns but now hire guns to "protect" them? They need to shut the rag down permanently! Subscribers should cancel…don't buy the rag in any form and advise the advertisers that you will not purchase their products if they advertise in the Journal. No other way to get the point across…"stupid is as stupid does"…
How would they fell about their own home addresses being published? Better yet, the names of their children and the "emergency word" that the children were told that only someone whom Mommy sent would know.
It's a broad, and you can read about at Fox Nation. As a woman, I have seriously begun to despise females!
Ridiculous, puerile, and an abuse of journalistic privilege. What of law enforcement officers who must bring their guns home? What about women who keep a handgun for protection from stalkers? What about weekend hobbyists who enjoy target practice? n nThis liberal backlash against guns is foolish and misguided, like most liberal causes.
Apparently you haven't been actually reading the news regarding this topic. nThere's just as many Repubs as Dems who are talking about gun control. n nI guess its just easier to write the same inane sentence over and over…(regardless of the topic). n"Everything bad in this country is due to liberals" nRepeat ad nauseum. n
the first thing the "wimpy gun hating editor" did after posting names of law abiding citizens nwas call police…then hired armed guards…the police are called after the crimes have been committed and usually end up taking the names of the victims and then try and figure out what happened and who did it…a legal weapon is always with you and costs a lot less than hiring armed guards besides "hired guards" are not with you 24 hrs a day 7 days a week…had the principle been armed there would have been only one body to identify and that would have been that of the "DERANGED" shooter..there are consequences for you actions and this woos needs to think about that before she uses her position to try and force her beliefs on law abiding citizens