Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Law and Order / Legislature / Politics / Woods Gun Nuts Make Ominous Warnings, Post Maps to Homes of Newspaper Executives
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 7:52 AM
By late last week, Commercial Appeal executives were receiving as many as 600 e-mails a day, along with dozens of phone calls at home, at work and on their cell phones. Maps to their houses, with ominous warnings, had been posted online. Our crime? Putting up a Web-only database that allows people to search by name or ZIP code for those who have a permit to carry a concealed weapon in Tennessee. The list came from the Tennessee Department of Safety and is available to anyone who wants it, simply by contacting the agency's office.The controversy has sparked legislation to make the names of permit holders secret. The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government's Frank Gibson explains why that's a bad idea.
"It's been reported that Tennessee does a lousy job, for example, of controlling the issuance of gun permits to people with mental health problems. The fact that these records are public have been used over the last couple of years to show that the Department of Safety was issuing permits to convicted felons."
Comments (25)
Showing 1-25 of 25
"Maps to their houses, with ominous warnings, had been posted online."
Right-to-privacy for me, but not for thee.
Sauce, goose, gander, you know the rest.
like
dislike
Wouldn't it be easier to just require permit-holders to wear a big five-pointed yellow star (like a sheriff's badge) marked Juden, err, I mean Permit Holder on their clothes? And maybe we should have them all live in one section of the city so they won't endanger Christians AHEM! I mean peaceable non-gun owners? We could even wall their section off and guard the entrances, only allowing them to come and go with permission from the Reich, oops I mean Fatherland, darn it I mean State.
Mr. Woods, your vitriol proves that you are not capable of responsibly excercising your 1rst Amendment rights. We shall post your personal information and encourage the public to access it and contact you about your rights. Good day to you, you utter fool.
Got to laugh at the press guys.
They can dish it out... but they can't take it.
Someone publish their contact info (home/cell phone and home address) so the rest of us can join in thanking them for their "wisdom".
Arselicks.
Something like this happened somewhere else. As I recall a parole officer had an uninvited visit by some of the ex-cons that he worked with after a newspaper uploaded a similar database.
So what is worth stealing in your house by the way? Why don't you post what valuables you have in your house along with your name, street address, and phone number? Would you appreciate the stores that you buy goods from giving that information away and putting it up on a zipcode based searchable database?
And if that isnt enough,info can be gleaned from the internet that describes your car,tag number,how much you owe on it, (the same with your house and mortgage)your criminal history(if you have one)and a few little other details that can be made public. So,friends,its tit for tat,you antigun psychotics.
You know, I'm somehow not awfully sympathetic to a paper that publishes the the home addresses and personal data of a largely law-abiding segment of the populace, when that populace smiles sweetly, turns around, and returns the favor.
If it's legitimate to suggest "hey, wait around for the folks to leave *this house* and there's probably some high-profit stuff to burgle (guns aren't cheap, even in the illicit market place)" or alternatively as locations for anti-gun protests via publication of the Commecial Appeals list...it seems only fair to provide similar data on the staff of the Commercial Appeal.
And I've yet to touch upon the possibility of employers scanning this repugnant little database with an eye towards terminating those of their employees found upon it....
GC
Seattle, WA
It's funny how the tyrants don't like their own music played back to them. This doesn't work only one way.
Keep it up there in Tennessee.
Jeff, why does it not occur to you that if my information can be made public, yours also can be made public? If mine is not sacrosanct, why would yours be?
Semper fi
Jeff:
Your condescention and sanctimony does not negate a few simple facts:
1. The right to own and carry guns shall not be infringed.
2. People value their rights
3. Infringement of people's rights, and the vilification of those people for valuing those rights, shall not come without consequences.
When anti-rights bigots open wounds, and you go about rubbing salt in those wounds ... good people are going to react.
I hope Liberty loving brave real Americans who live in Tennessee know the address of this little commie rag and this commie propagandist when "Liberal" season begins.
Don't understand? Start here:
http://willowtown.com/promo/quotes.htm
Then see what garbage like this does to people when it controls an entire coutnry:
http://willowtown.com/reality/britsinsane.htm
Then share and prepare.
As Socialistic as California is and with the amount restrictive anti-gun laws we have the one law on the books that is good "There is no ACCESS to the list of CCW holders by BLABBER MOUTHED NEWSPAPERS who think it is there right to place law abiding citizens lives in danger because they can. It's one thing to seek out and expose corruption and mis-deeds
but it is completely ignorant and calloused and without feeling to place law abiding citizens lives at risk because they choose to defend themselves in stead of being defenseless so as to quench your desire for THE BLOOD TO BE SPILLED. If people choose to defend themselves that is their choice AND if people DO NOT choose to defend themselves that is their choice too.
Since cars are so dangerous, and since they are used to kill many more people in the US than guns, I think Mr. Peck should make a Drivers License search function available thru his paper's web site, just like the concealed carry permittee one.
But, then, Mr. Peck isn't crusading against cars, is he?
Between the legislature preparing to use gays as its whipping boy and the fumingly vitriolic comments here, I seriously may consider moving somewhere else. Somewhere, say, where people know how to write. And spell.
(Outspoken2: "Socialistic" is not a word.)
I'm going to blame our legislators for focusing on gun bullshit instead of like, education, or something!
Geez, you crack me up. You insult Tennesseans for their grammar and spelling, then say "like, " but you left off Dude.
I hope you DO consider moving - and then move out of Tennessee.
Ray, it's called sarcasm. (Using "like.")
And trust me, pitiful morons like you make me want to move out of Tennessee. Question: why don't you just set up Tennessee as a theocracy. You know, like the Christian version of Iran? Then you can have the country you always wanted. (Helpful hint: if you go to www.dictionary.com, you can look up "theocracy." Don't want you to hurt your brain
too much.)
Geez, you still here? Thought you had an appointment with United Van Lines.
Sorry, that's "Thought you had, like, an appointment with, like, United Van Lines, Dude."
You just don't get it do you Geez?
If you hysterical hoplophobic fools wouldn't try to force your pathetic Victim's Disarmament Zone Brady Bunch agenda down everyone's throat it wouldn't be an issue. Just leave us the Hades alone. Try minding your own friggin' business, for once.
Gun-Control has nothing to do with Guns, just Control.
Tit for tat, baby. It sucks having your home address and phone out there doesn't it?
Sorry twit.
No, I do get it. I have mixed feelings, at best, about gun control. But by your logic, if you hate the "control" aspect -- which I understand -- why aren't you up in arms about government controlling abortion? Or saying who can or can't get married?
And Augustus, the only hysterical behavior I've seen has been from pro-gun advocates on this blog. If I had more time today, I'd go trolling on NRA blogs to see if they encouraged followers to come post here...it's a little odd that y'all just came crawling out of the woodwork for this one post.
The Gov. shouldn't be involved in any of it. If your irresponsible sexual behavior leads to a conception and want to kill the child you're carrying that's your decision. Live with it. If you want to be gay, be gay. I don't care; but don't tell me I have to think it's right, or OK, or normal or tolerate your choice. And sure as !@#$%^&*() don't try to indoctrinate my children with your mentality. MYODB...
That's the difference between Liberals and Libertarians. You always want to force your agenda on people. Liberals always want the benefits and cry foul when faced with the consequences of their own decisions. Libertarians, we just want to live our lives our way. For better or for worse, we live with our own choices and bear the responsibility and cost for them.
If you think publishing people’s personal info because they have a CCW isn't a reason to get PO'ed you've been drinking too much Leninade. The people who published it deserve to feel threatened. They took honest law abiding citizens and made them potential targets. Personally I'd like to see them Drawn and Quartered, since minding your own affairs seems to be beyond their bounds of self control.
BTW, I love how you run home to the good old Liberal "Go-To" word when you're faced with dissension to your position.
It's always about "Hate". "Critical Thought" is so far beyond you it's never even considered.
Speaking as one of those individuals who put up a reciprocal database of the contact information for the Commercial Appeal's staff, I can tell you that I provided no ominous warnings whatsoever, nor have I seen such supposed "warnings" at any other website that posted the staff's information (if you can provide a specific, concrete example, please do so - I am curious, and will lend my voice to those discouraging the "warnings"). Furthermore, the information I posted is public information, as listed in the White Pages, their local county's tax office, and a variety of other public, easily-accessible sources. I simply consolidated the information in one easy-to-search and -read location. Finally, I will take the contact information down as soon as the Commercial Appeal takes down their database.
Regarding the legislation, I strongly urge those interested to contact your local legislators and request their support on either HB0221 or SB 0172 - identical bills that would make the disclosure of the handgun carry permit database a Class A fine-only misdemeanor. I will certainly grant that the TN DoS sometimes makes mistakes and issues permits to those who are not legally permitted to have them; however, that is a problem that should be properly addressed by contacting the TN DoS, the TBI, and the FBI, and expressing your disappoingment and displeasure concerning the accuracy of their background check methods. The law-abiding handgun carry permit holders of Tennessee who acquired their permits legally, and are completely authorized to have them, are not responsible for the shortcomings of the state's government, and the disclosure of their information is neither relevant nor helpful. It is, however, invasive and endangering.
At any rate, given your propensity for referring to fellow law-abiding, private citizens as "gun-nuts" and "freaks", it should come as no surprise to me that you are not, at all, interested in the reality of the situation, and instead are a fan of the same sensationalist journalism tactics that the Commercial Appeal seems to be employing.
On an unrelated note, Geez, you might want to check dictionary.com yourself - your ignorance aside, "socialistic" is, in fact, a word. Mind the plank in your own eye before you get too stressed about the motes in others'.
People have a right to know if a newspaper reporter, editor, or other member of the mainstream media lives next door or in the neighborhood.
I say, good for the gun owners!
If THEY had wanted their names published, they could have taken out an ad. You seem to forget that privacy isn't just for "journalists" and I used the word loosely. Maybe next time, the gun owners will give auto descriptions and license numbers. Act responsibly, maybe you won't find yourselves in this predicament.
Joe Gresham
Kentucky
