Yes, but the people have a right to know, right?
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.
Local lawmakers also say that they intend to introduce legislation that prevents information about legal gun owners from being released to the public.
Are prison guards and police officers now to be sacrificed on the altar of gun control politics? The ostensible reason for publishing the list of gun owners was “public safety.” What happens when those responsible for maintaining public safety are themselves made a target for crime?
Liberals pride themselves on pulling off stunts that are supposed to dramatize a social problem. That’s all this little exercise was. There was no compelling “right to know” by the public. If there had been, the publication of the list would have happened years ago. Choosing to out gun owners at this time, in this manner, was mostly politics with perhaps a dash of capitalist exploitation of an horrific tragedy thrown in for good measure.
Meanwhile, in a suburb outside of Atlanta, a woman with two children demonstrates the efficacy of arming oneself for protection in the home:
A woman hiding in her attic with children shot an intruder multiple times before fleeing to safety Friday.
The incident happened at a home on Henderson Ridge Lane in Loganville around 1 p.m. The woman was working in an upstairs office when she spotted a strange man outside a window, according to Walton County Sheriff Joe Chapman. He said she took her 9-year-old twins to a crawlspace before the man broke in using a crowbar.
But the man eventually found the family.
“The perpetrator opens that door. Of course, at that time he’s staring at her, her two children and a .38 revolver,” Chapman told Channel 2’s Kerry Kavanaugh.
The woman then shot him five times, but he survived, Chapman said. He said the woman ran out of bullets but threatened to shoot the intruder if he moved.
No doubt supporters of the action of the Journal-News think the woman would have been better off calling 911 and waiting for the police to show up and rescue her rather than arming herself and putting her entire neighborhood in danger. If that had been the case, this story would not have had such a happy ending.
Fallout from this story will continue, as will the insipid justifications used by the Journal-News to defend the indefensible.
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