Journal News gun permit map used by burglars to target White Plains home?
By TIMOTHY O'CONNOR and MEGHAN E. MURPHY (New York Newsday)

http://newyork.newsday.com/news/nation/journal-news-gun-permit-map-used-by-burglars-to-target-white-plains-home-1.4441678


A White Plains residence pinpointed on a controversial handgun permit database was burglarized Saturday, and the burglars' target was the homeowner's gun safe.

At least two burglars broke into a home on Davis Avenue at 9:30 p.m. Saturday but were unsuccessful in an attempt to open the safe, which contained legally owned weapons, according to a law enforcement source. One suspect was taken into custody, the source said.

The gun owner was not home when the burglary occurred, the source said. The victim, who is in his 70s, told Newsday on Sunday that he did not want to comment while the police investigation continues.

The homeowner's name and address were included recently on the controversial interactive map of gun permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties published on The Journal News' website.

Police are investigating what role, if any, the database played in the burglars' decision to target the home, the law enforcement source said.

The Journal News has been the target of sharp criticism from gun rights advocates and some media ethicists since running the story and interactive map Dec. 23. The story was published 10 days after the Newtown, Conn., mass shooting that claimed the lives of 20 young children and seven adults.

A call for comment to The Journal News was not immediately returned.

Although some good-government groups have come to the defense of the White Plains-based newspaper, some elected officials, including State Sen. Greg Ball (R-Patterson, have complained the permit map could aid criminals.

"If the connection is proven, this is further proof that these maps are not only an invasion of privacy but that they present a clear and present danger to law-abiding, private citizens," Ball said Sunday in a statement.

On Monday, Ball will introduce a third bill into the state Legislature intended to keep the names of those who have gun permits private.

The good news in all of this is that the bedwetters from the Journal News had to hire security since their little stunt. Since they are gunphobes and don't know which end of a firearm to point, they have the expense (and it has to be expensive) of 24-hour armed security. Oh, the irony.

What's not funny are the people on their little map. Battered wives in hiding (not anymore) with protection from abuse orders who bought firearms for their protection. Same with victims of stalkers. Some people are finding their addresses on the list because a gun permit was issued to some previous owner or tenant of the property. It's not a gun registry. You don't have to notify anyone when you move.

Unintended consequences? Liberal scumbags don't give a flying Philadelphia you-know-what about that. For them the end always justifies the means.

Hopefully it turns out that this is true and the burglary victim sues the paper for enough of money to shut them down.

A classic example of how freedom of the press, oblivious to human safety, is misused. While the press has a right to publish what it wants, it also has a RESPONSIBILIY of not endangering others with what it prints. And, don't give me the feeble excuse of they "didn't" put the criminals up to robbery.

Exactly, you'll never convince me that someone at that newspaper didn't have the common sense to see that they were telling criminals exactly where the guns were and just didn't care.
Then again newspapers are mostly ran by liberals, so common sense may not be too common.

I've never been a burglar, but I'd think twice about robbing a gun owner's home as opposed to one who is not...but that's just me. The obituary section is another database used by burgers.