A New York newspaper, The Journal News, published the names and addresses of handgun permit holders in two New York counties, using Freedom of Information requests.
The interactive maps “indicates the addresses of all pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties. Each dot represents an individual permit holder licensed to own a handgun — a pistol or revolver. The data does not include owners of long guns — rifles or shotguns — which can be purchased without a permit. Being included in this map does not mean the individual at a specific location owns a weapon, just that they are licensed to do so.”
Even Jonahan Lowy of the gun control group the Brady Center has said that the newspaper should not have published the names of gun owners. Amid this ever growing controversy, CNN has reported that the paper’s publisher, the Journal News Media Group, defended the decision in a statement last week noting.
“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 shootings.”
The newspaper went on to state that they had wanted to pubish even more information, adding: “We were surprised when we weren’t able to obtain information on what kinds and how many weapons people in our market own.”
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