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WND EXCLUSIVE

Own a gun? We know where you live

Newspaper publishes map of all permit holders in its area

Published: 3 hours agoby Drew Zahn

A New York newspaper has gone to the effort to map out and publish online – complete with names and addresses – all the people in its area who own handgun permits.

The Journal News of White Plains, N.Y., has created interactive, online maps of all handgun permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties, while it’s also waiting on information from Putnam County.

The newspaper boasts it was able to obtain the names and addresses through a Freedom of Information request, for New York state law makes permit holders’ information public record.

The interactive maps not only give an overall picture of the distribution of handgun permits, but can also be zoomed in upon, revealing the name and address of those licensed to own a handgun, be it pistol or revolver.

Presumably, a person familiar with an area could also use the maps to obtain locations of homes where the owner doesn’t have a handgun permit.

Jeff Knox, director of The Firearms Coalition, called the newspaper’s action “an outrageous invasion of privacy and a highly irresponsible action.”

“People choose to own handguns for a variety of reasons, personal defense being the most common,” Knox told WND. “How many victims of domestic violence, armed to protect themselves from an abusive spouse or boyfriend, were jeopardized by releasing this information? How many vulnerable seniors were placed at-risk by revealing the fact that they own guns?

A gun in the home is a last line of defense against violent criminals,” Knox continued. “Publicizing the existence of the gun in a particular home can have a potentially deadly impact. Guns are highly desirable targets of thieves, and we can expect that some of the people on this list will have their homes burglarized within the next 12 months.”

Response to the online article, judging by its comments section, has likewise been overwhelmingly negative.

“This is crazy!” commented a poster identified as Curtis Maenza. “Why in the world would you post every licensed gun owner['s] information? What do you hope to accomplish by doing this? This is the type of thing you do for sex offenders, not law-abiding gun owners. … I am canceling my subscription with your paper today!”

A poster identifying himself as Robert Wachtel of Mahopac, N.Y., added, “This is the single most irresponsible and dangerous piece of ‘journalism’ I have ever seen.

Criminals can now target a specific neighborhood, wait for pistol permit holders to leave for work and burglarize their homes looking for firearms.”

He continued, “There is no legitimate public policy purpose for having pistol-permit info available to the general public. Many states have shielded this information and made it available only to law enforcement. I encourage everyone to contact their state representatives to have this … information shielded.”

The state of New York has become a hotbed for debate on the issue of gun laws since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Conn.

At the forefront is the New York Daily News, which shed all pretense of unbiased journalism by publishing a frontpage headline following the shooting that read, “Blood on Your Hands,” and called for readers to sign a petition to “institute comprehensive gun control.” The paper’s editorial department further called Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association a “gun-crazed maniac” who “will forever now be known as America’s maddest gunman.” It has continued in news and editorial coverage to refer to LaPierre as “crazy.”

The highly charged atmosphere surrounding the issue gave Knox yet another reason to criticize the newspaper’s action.

“At a time when prominent public personalities and political operatives are blaming gun owners for the terrible atrocity in Newtown, Conn., and calling for the deaths of gun owners and NRA members,” Knox said, “the publication of this information appears to be an overt threat and intentional effort at intimidation.

“The publication of this information just goes to demonstrate why gun owners around the country are so vehemently opposed to laws requiring registration of firearms,” he concluded. “Something like this paints a large bull’s-eye on the backs of gun owners and on the front doors of their homes, placing them and their families at risk for no justifiable reason.”

Read more at Own a gun? We know where you live

WND EXCLUSIVE

NBC reporter to face gun charges?

Anchorman in trouble for action on national TV

Published: 2 hours ago

Thousands of people have signed an online petition demanding that the Obama administration file charges against NBC’s David Gregory for his possession of a high-capacity gun magazine.

According to a published report over the weekend, Gregory held up a high-capacity magazine for ammunition on national television for a discussion of gun controls.

On “Meet the Press,” Gregory brandished the magazine and said, “Here is a magazine for ammunition that carries 30 bullets. … Now isn’t it possible that if we got rid of these, if we replaced them and said, ‘Well, you could only have a magazine that carries five bullets or 10 bullets,’ isn’t it just possible that we could reduce the carnage in a situation like Newtown?”

His commentary came after the Newtown, Conn., school shooting where 20 children and six adults were killed by a 20-year-old with several guns he had obtained, despite state restrictions that already should have prevented him from using them.

But the program is taped in Washington, D.C., and the district has a ban on such pieces of equipment.

So nearly 3,500 people already have signed the petition that was created on a White House website demanding that officials “press charges against David Gregory for possession of a 30-round, high capacity assault rifle magazine in Washington.”

The petitions are ways for Americans to bring issues to the attention of the Obama administration, and if the total signatures reaches 25,000 there’s supposed to be a response.

The petition states, “David Gregory is not above the law; he is a journalist, and must be held accountable to the same law as every other person.”

It quotes the district law, “No person in the district shall possess, sell, or transfer any large capacity ammunition feeding device regardless of whether the device is attached to a firearm. For the purposes of this subsection, the term large capacity ammunition feeding device means a magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, or similar device that has a capacity of, or that can be readily restored or converted to accept, more than 10 rounds of ammunition.”

“We The People demand that he be formally charged for violation of this law on ‘Meet the Press,’” the petition, created over the weekend, states.

At the time of the stunt, Gregory was asking Wayne LaPierre, the chief of the National Rifle Association, whether his group would argue over gun controls.

Among the comments posted on WND in response to a report about Gregory’s possession of such a weapon component, one forum participant said, “We know how well criminals will comply with that limitation … don’t we?”




WND had reported just days earlier about another petition there that demanded British CNN host Piers Morgan be deported back to England.

Morgan has been an inflammatory voice in the nation’s debate over gun-control legislation since the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Newtown, Conn., in which 27 people, including alleged shooter Adam Lanza, died.

Outrage over Morgan’s pro-gun-control views began last week, when the host engaged in a heated debate with guest Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, on his “Piers Morgan Tonight” show.

“The argument I keep hearing is, ‘Well if everybody else was armed, it wouldn’t happen.’ It’s a load of total hogwash,” Morgan told Pratt. “How many more kids have to die, before you guys say, ‘We want less guns, not more?’”

But Morgan really raised eyebrows when, in the midst of a heated exchange, he turned on Pratt and said, “You’re an unbelievably stupid man, aren’t you?”

Moments later he continued, “You don’t give a d— about the gun murder rate in America, do you? You don’t actually care.”

The next day, Morgan ruffled feathers again by responding to a Twitter message accusing him of being “gleeful” that the Sandy Hook tragedy happened to help advance his gun-control cause with a tweet of his own reading, “Of course I am, you moron.”

When the response was publicized, Morgan followed with another tweet calling his previous comment “obvious sarcasm.”

Apparently, however, some have had enough.

The petition to deport Morgan reads, “British Citizen and CNN television host Piers Morgan is engaged in a hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution by targeting the Second Amendment. We demand that Mr. Morgan be deported immediately for his effort to undermine the Bill of Rights and for exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens.”

The Hill reports Kurt Nimmo of Infowars.com fame started the petition.


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