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Newspaper sparks outrage for publishing names, addresses of gun permit holders

Posted at 11:34 AM, Dec 26, 2012
and last updated 2012-12-26 11:34:45-05

By KC Maas

(CNN) — An interactive map showing the names and addresses of all handgun permit holders in New York’s Westchester and Rockland counties has infuriated many readers since it was posted Saturday on a newspaper’s website.

The map, published by The Journal News, allows readers to zoom in on red dots that indicate which residents are licensed to own pistols or revolvers. It had prompted more than 1,700 comments as of Wednesday morning.

Blue dots indicate permit holders who “have purchased a firearm or updated the information on a permit in the past five years.”

“So should we start wearing yellow Stars of David so the general public can be aware of who we are??” one commenter wrote.

“This is crazy!” wrote another.

Some of those responding threatened to cancel their subscriptions or boycott the publication.

“I hope you lose readers now,” one wrote.

The map came about in the wake of the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, according to a statement from The Journal News.

“In the past week, conversation on our opinion pages and on our website, LoHud.com, has been keenly focused on gun control,” the newspaper’s editor and vice president, CynDee Royle, said in the statement.

The names and addresses of the two counties’ permit-holding residents were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The website notes that the map does not indicate whether the residents own handguns, only that they are legally able to, and that the data do not pertain to rifles or shotguns, which can be bought without a permit.

Still, hundreds of residents were shocked to see their information posted without their being notified. Some said the map would prompt burglaries because thieves are now aware of where weapons might be found.

“Now everyone knows where the legal guns are kept, a valuable piece of information for criminals,” a commenter wrote. “Why don’t you do something helpful, like trying to find out where the illegal guns are kept?”

The Journal News argued that residents have a right to access information regarding weapon holders in Westchester and Rockland communities.

“Our readers are understandably interested to know about guns in their neighborhoods,” Royle said in her statement.

“We knew publication of the database would be controversial but we felt sharing as much information as we could about gun ownership in our area was important in the aftermath of the Newtown shootings,” she said.

In an article about the uproar, The Journal News says many of the thousands of people who “have taken to their computers and phones in rage” live outside the counties covered by the map.

In searching through hundreds of comments listed on the website, CNN did not immediately see any in support of the newspaper’s decision to publish the interactive map.

The Journal News said it published an article in 2006 that received similar responses, but this time around, social media spread the story far and wide.

In 2007, roanoke.com, the website of The Roanoke Times, published a list of Virginians licensed to carry concealed weapons, and then deleted it the next day. The paper explained that the list, originally published as part of an opinion column, was removed “out of concern that it might include names that should not have been made public.”

CNN’s Josh Levs contributed to this report.

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