Conservatives are furious a local Hudson Valley, New York newspaper has published the names and addresses of thousands of gun permit holders — “all pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties.” The Journal News, a subsidiary of Gannett Newspapers, who also publish USA Today, on Sunday published an interactive map, “Where are the gun permits in your neighborhood?”
Jim Hoft at the radical right wing Tea Party blog, Gateway Pundit called it “outrageous” and linked to an embarrassingly unintelligent piece from AMI Global Security, a guns and ammo seller, which calls the publication “a massive privacy breach and the latest in a series of over the top emotional reactions to the latest shooting tragedy in Sandy Hook CT meant to intimidate the lawful and  prey on peoples fears to exploit the gun grabbing agenda.”
All The Journal News did was publish public information received via a Freedom of Information request.
“This is a invasion of privacy that does nothing to safeguard the law abiding from the criminal element,” AMI Global Security writes. “One barking dog can herd a thousand sheep to be sheared.  This appears to be an attempt to abrogate the Bill of Rights.  If Paul Revere had the internet, he would not have needed a horse.  Please share this with all of your fellow Americans who are alarmed by a government encroachment, aided and abetted by propagandist masquerading as objective journalist.”
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Â If you are appalled and alarmed at this abuse of power:
The best response to the gun grabbing agenda driven  is for Americans nation-wide to purchase a firearm today!
I am calling on all Americans,  Constitutionalists,  Tea Party Patriots and 2nd Amendment Activists, to make their voices heard in NY and around the country immediately.   The New York City Council just published a report recommending blatant infringements and restraints on the Bill of Rights!!
Contact the Editors at LOHUD.COM Â and cancel your subscription and let their advertisers know how you feel about it. Â This is the power of the 1st Amendment in your hands that empowers you to preserve the safeguard afforded us by the 2nd Amendment to the Bill of Rights.
Of course, typical Tea Party wing nuts have no idea what the First Amendment actually means — and have no idea that private citizens contacting a newspaper has nothing whatsoever to do with the first Amendment at all. In fact, most of what was written was unintelligent.
In a follow up piece, The Journal News writes:
The database, legally obtained from the county clerks’ offices through a Freedom of Information Act request made after the shootings in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 children and eight adults dead, has been called irresponsible, dangerous and leaning toward intimidation by several online pundits.
Social media played a big part in the exponential spread of the story, whose map has been recommended more than 20,000 times. Two Facebook posts linking to the story on Sunday garnered 346 comments as of this evening. That’s in addition to 167 comments posted directly to Facebook.com/LoHud since the story published.
Numerous additional comments relating to the gun permit map have appeared on posts in other unrelated stories. More than a dozen more people sent private messages via Facebook objecting to the map. The overwhelming majority of comments strongly object to the story.
The database was also mentioned in the Drudge Report, Memorandum.com, Breitbart.com, Thegatewaypundit.com, Instapundit, iOwnTheWorld.com and UrbanGrounds, along with Yahoo, ABC News and Fox News, among others.
More than 500 comments — on both sides of the debate — accompanied a story on CNN.com this evening.
Hundreds of callers have complained, claiming publication of the database put their safety at risk or violated their privacy. Others claimed publication was illegal. Many of the callers were vitriolic and some threatened members of the newspaper staff.
Â