touche !

[Christians4LessGvt]

Blogger Creates Interactive Map of Employees of Paper
Which Published Names and Addresses of Pistol Permit Holders

By Tom Blumer -  December 26, 2012

In response to Gannett's Jounal News headquartered in White Plains, New York publishing an interactive map containing the names and addresses of all pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland Counties (previous related posts are here and here), blogger Robert Cox at NewRochelleTalk.com (HT Instapundit) has produced an interactive map at a post entitled:
"Where are the Journal News employees in your neighborhood?"

It contains names, addresses, and various forms of Internet presence. Some of his narrative follows the jump:

The map indicates the addresses of all Journal News Employees in the New York Tri-State area. Each dot represents an individual Journal News employee -- a reporter, editor or staffer. The data does not include freelancers "reporters or photographers" which can be hired without being an employee. Being included in this map does not mean the individual at a specific location is a responsible reporter or editor, just that they are a reporter or editor.

Data for all categories is included, but certain information is not available on an individual basis.

To create the map, Talk of the Sound submitted Google searches for the names and addresses of all Journal News employees in the New York Tri-State area. By state law, the information is public record.

To the inevitable objection that Cox has gone over the top, I would suggest that the Journal News obviously started this nonsense -- and if they didn't anticipate that blowback such as this might happen, they should have.

Sorry, Journal News, but you can't just walk all over the privacy rights of thousands of individuals and families and endanger everyone in your reading area in a blatant attempt to, by your own admission, capitalize on a school shooting tragedy -- gun owners who might see their weapons stolen and non-owners who can now be considered "soft targets" -- while automatically assuming that there will be no consequences.

http://www.bizzyblog.com/2012/12/26/blogger-creates-interactive-map-of-employees-of-paper-which-published-names-and-addresses-of-pistol-permit-holders/

[Xavier_Onassis]

Not only do the gun nuts have to have their guns, they want to preserve their identities as "Secret Squirrel" as well.

[sirs]

What makes a CCW holder effective, in those states that show a decreased amount of violent crime, is the bad guys not knowing who has a gun.  They want to focus on those they know don't, such a gun free zones. 

300+million guns in this country, and apparently per the ignorant left's conclusion, anyone that owns and exercises their 2nd amendment rights, that shall not be infringed, is a "gun nut".  Who shouldn't know who owns them, is the Federal Government.  So much the easier to confiscate, in the name of "national security"

But thanks to the Constitution, our founders forsight, and these "gun nuts", an Xo-supported regime is gonna be so much harder to achieve, I'm afraid

[Xavier_Onassis]

How could anyone have a "well regulated militia" without even knowing which of its members were armed, and with what?

Gun nuts are incredibly stupid. They shoot themselves in the feet so often that it is a wonder they are not all toeless.

[sirs]

The one entity NOT allowed to regulate this irrelevent tantent of a militia would be the Federal Government

Anti-gun nuts are incredibly ignorant, especially when they can't be bothered to back up even one asinine claim such as some prevelent accidentally shooting themselves.  Let's throw all the facts of how many lives are saved by a gun, compared to those taken by one, and completely focus on emotional ignorance   

[Xavier_Onassis]

What, pray tell, is a "tantent"?

You should be out packin' iron and strutting around like the fool you are, saving lives through pure intimidation, rather than wasting your time here demonstrating an IQ approximating that of last Thursday's meatloaf.

[sirs]

Once again, the level of ignorance, or perhaps more accurately the level of intellectual dishonesty, being portrayed in these mere few responses is quite staggering.  For instance, have anyone ever heard someone(s) advocating the need that we all openly carrying our weapon, and trying to look as intimidating as possible, analogus to "packing iron & strutting around like a fool"??

For someone who gets off on trying to claim how stupid or low IQ, others are, best word of advice is to try practicing what you preach

Most CCW holders don't go around "strutting", "Looking to be intimidating", or even looking to save lives.  That's not what they're trained for.  What they have trained themselves to do is to use guns safely, and if the need arises, be a distinct deterrent to some REAL gun nut, looking to kill in mass

And we won't even deal with the spelling nazi's reappearance to try and figure out that in the context of the sentence, the word tantent, that was giving our "language professor" so much difficulty, was that the "t" was close to the "g", and in typing quickly, was mispelled, which most rational folks would have registered, "ahh, he meant to spell tangent"

[Plane]

Can someone left off the list sue the paper when the burgulars start showing up?

If I were living in that neighborhood , even if I had no gun I would demand to be put on the list.

After all I could get the permit without having to get the gun first, so I could get the permit just to show up on the list of houses not to burgle.

[sirs]

The Journal News is Armed and Dangerous
Posted January 1st, 2013

Armed guards from RGA Investigations have taken up post at the Journal News’ Rockland County headquarters 
BY DYLAN SKRILOFF

Guns are good for the goose but NOT for the gander.

A Clarkstown police report issued on December 28, 2012, confirmed that The Journal News has hired armed security guards from New City-based RGA Investigations and that they are manning the newspaper’s Rockland County headquarters at 1 Crosfield Ave., West Nyack, through at least tomorrow, Wednesday, January 2, 2013.

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.

Private investigator Richard Ayoob is the administrator of RGA. He told the Clarkstown Police on Friday, December 28 that there had been no problems on site at the Journal News headquarters despite the massive influx of phone calls and emails.

McBride had filed at least two reports with the Clarkstown Police Department due to perceived threats. However, the police did not find the communications in question actually threatening. Incident-Report 2012-00033099 describes McBride telling police she was worried because an email writer wondered “what McBride would get in her mail now.”

Police said the email “did not constitute an offense” and did not contain an actual threat.

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.

[update---Putnam County officials have since announced their intention to not comply with the Journal News' request for the names and addresses of pistol permit holders]

The controversial use of the Freedom of Information Act to create the interactive map may come back to bite the Journal News and others who would prefer that pistol permits remain public record.

New York State Senator Greg Ball has already introduced state legislation to make such records off-limits to the public and Rockland County legislators led by Frank Sparaco (R) will soon introduce a bipartisan-sponsored resolution with a similar intent.

It is not clear whether the negative reaction has threatened the Journal News’ true popularity as a news source. As an anecdotal piece of evidence, the Rockland County Times confirms receiving an influx of new subscribers who stated they cancelled their subscription to the Journal News due to the gun story.

The Rockland County Times has not investigated whether the Journal News’ Westchester County headquarters in White Plains has beefed up security.

So much for practicing what one preaches

[Plane]

Did they find hiring the guards to be unaffordable?

[Xavier_Onassis]

That's not what they're trained for.  What they have trained themselves to do is to use guns safely,

============================================================
Most of them do not not seem to be necessarily trained at all. If they used guns unsafely, then we could spot them for their missing feet or toes. But not SHooting oneself in the foot is not the epitome of gun training.

I know several people who have spent big bucks for a Glock, which they claim they thought they needed for personal defense, but they have not trained with it at all, some because they figure it is really simple to shoot a threatening person, others because they don't want to spend all that money on ammo and gun range fees.

One guy told me that he went to a gun range and found the instructor to resemble a HS coach he really hated,and therefore never returned.

[Christians4LessGvt]

[sirs]

touche'

[sirs]

"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?”- Walter T. Shaw, former burglar and jewel thief

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.”

Article