The Fallout From Doxxing Gun Owners Continues

I knew this was trouble when the Journal News published the names of gun owners, including their names and addresses, but I admit I didn’t anticipate this.  You see, it turns out that many of the permit holders are cops who want to keep a piece when they are off duty, or even prison guards who maybe didn’t want their prisoners to know where they lived:

Inmates using newspaper's gun owner map to threaten guards, sheriff says

Law enforcement officials from a New York region where a local paper published a map identifying gun owners say prisoners are using the information to intimidate guards.

Rockland County Sheriff Louis Falco, who spoke at a news conference flanked by other county officials, said the Journal News' decision to post an online map of names and addresses of handgun owners Dec. 23 has put law enforcement officers in danger.

"They have inmates coming up to them and telling them exactly where they live. That's not acceptable to me," Falco said, according to Newsday.

Robert Riley, an officer with the White Plains Police Department and president of its Patrolman’s Benevolent Association, agreed.

"You have guys who work in New York City who live up here. Now their names and addresses are out there, too," he said adding that there are 8,000 active and retired NYPD officers currently living in Rockland County.

Read the whole thing.  This wholesale stigmatization of those who own guns sweeps into their net a lot of people for whom it would be absurd for them not to have guns.  Prison guards, off-duty cops, honorably discharged soldiers...  It recalls the facts of D.C. v. Heller, where Mr. Heller was described as follows:

Respondent Dick Heller is a D.C. special police officer authorized to carry a handgun while on duty at the Federal Judicial Center. He applied for a registration certificate for a handgun that he wished to keep at home, but the District refused.

In other words, when it was time to protect the judiciary, he was trusted with a gun.  But if he wanted to protect his own life, the District of Columbia told him he couldn’t be trusted with a gun.  Likewise, the Journal News seemed to think that knowing a person owned a gun would make you feel less safe.  Even if you ordinarily accept that premise, would you feel the same way if you knew that person was a cop or a prison guard?  Wouldn’t you assume that they are as trustworthy with guns off duty as when they were on duty?

By the way, you know who also tends to buy guns?  Women who had abusive exes, or have otherwise been stalked:

This one lady whose been stalked for years in West Chester County. She finally found peace, two years without the stalker contacting her. Two days after that paper released her information she gets hangups all night long. She lives in fear, her and her three daughters.

That’s via Gateway Pundit via Lonely Conservative.  And while I am not thrilled with reports of officials with the paper being doxxed, I do support legal responses to this.  I like the idea of a boycott of their advertisers, and some enterprising lawyer in the state of New York should sue the hell out of everyone involved.

This also might be why officials are refusing to provide the Journal News information like this.  Good for them.

Like I said, this was not what I anticipated when the story was first published, but it’s another reason why the Journal News story was irresponsible.  The common theory of why it was irresponsible was that it would tell criminals where to steal guns.  But my theory was it would, by process of elimination, tell criminals where the guns weren’t.  And both theories has been verified to some degree by this reporting:

Ex-Burglars Say Newspaper’s Gun Map Would’ve Made the Job Easier, Safer

Reformed crooks say the New York newspaper that published a map of names and addresses of gun owners did a great service – to their old cronies in the burglary trade.

The information published online by the Journal-News, a daily paper serving the New York suburbs of Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties, could be highly useful to thieves in two ways, former burglars told FoxNews.com. Crooks looking to avoid getting shot now know which targets are soft and those who need weapons know where they can steal them.

“That was the most asinine article I’ve ever seen,” said Walter T. Shaw, 65, a former burglar and jewel thief who the FBI blames for more than 3,000 break-ins that netted some $70 million in the 1960s and 1970s. “Having a list of who has a gun is like gold - why rob that house when you can hit the one next door, where there are no guns?

"What they did was insanity," added Shaw, author of "License to Steal," a book about his criminal career.

Read the whole thing.  So if you own a gun and you are on that list, keep it with you as much as humanly possible and keep it well hidden if you have to leave it behind.  And if you don’t have a gun, get one.  And in all cases, call a good lawyer.  Make this paper pay for endangering you and your family.

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My wife and I have lost our jobs due to the harassment of convicted terrorist Brett Kimberlin, including an attempt to get us killed and to frame me for a crime carrying a sentence of up to ten years.  I know that claim sounds fantastic, but if you read starting here, you will see absolute proof of these claims using documentary and video evidence.  If you would like to help in the fight to hold Mr. Kimberlin accountable, please hit the Blogger’s Defense Team button on the right.  And thank you.

Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.  And you can purchase my book (or borrow it for free if you have Amazon Prime), Archangel: A Novel of Alternate, Recent History here.  And you can read a little more about my novel, here.

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Disclaimer:

I have accused some people, particularly Brett Kimberlin, of reprehensible conduct.  In some cases, the conduct is even criminal.  In all cases, the only justice I want is through the appropriate legal process—such as the criminal justice system.  I do not want to see vigilante violence against any person or any threat of such violence.  This kind of conduct is not only morally wrong, but it is counter-productive.

In the particular case of Brett Kimberlin, I do not want you to even contact him.  Do not call him.  Do not write him a letter.  Do not write him an email.  Do not text-message him.  Do not engage in any kind of directed communication.  I say this in part because under Maryland law, that can quickly become harassment and I don’t want that to happen to him.

And for that matter, don’t go on his property.  Don’t sneak around and try to photograph him.  Frankly try not to even be within his field of vision.  Your behavior could quickly cross the line into harassment in that way too (not to mention trespass and other concerns).

And do not contact his organizations, either.  And most of all, leave his family alone.

The only exception to all that is that if you are reporting on this, there is of course nothing wrong with contacting him for things like his official response to any stories you might report.  And even then if he tells you to stop contacting him, obey that request.  That this is a key element in making out a harassment claim under Maryland law—that a person asks you to stop and you refuse.

And let me say something else.  In my heart of hearts, I don’t believe that any person supporting me has done any of the above.  But if any of you have, stop it, and if you haven’t don’t start.