Roanoke Times publishing list of Virginia permit holders
As a Sunshine Week gift, The Roanoke Times has placed the entire database, mistakes and all, online at www.roanoke.com/gunpermits. You can search to find out if neighbors, carpool partners, elected officials or anyone else has permission to carry a gun. . . . .
One of the benefits of concealed handguns is that criminals don't know who is going to be able to defend themselves, so even those who have no plans of carrying a concealed handgun benefit from the fact that others do so. Now if a criminal wants to attack someone all a criminal has to do is look up the name of a potential victim and see if they are able to defend themselves. I have one question for Christian Trejbal (the writer of the piece): Does he put a sign up in front of his home reading "This is a gun free home"? Probably not, and for good reason.
Thanks to William Taggart for alerting me to this newspaper article.
Labels: ConcealedCarry, Crime, Economics, GunControl
posted by John Lott at 1:22 PM
7 Comments:
This is a great example of the idiocy behind the "if the gubmint touches it, it's fair game" mentality.
When the legislature crafts law that spends public money on various projects or agencies, then we the people expect accountability and transparency, hence the Freedom Of Information Act.
When people have broken the law, and have been duly processed through our public legal system, the records of the proceedings should rightly be available for inspection.
However, when legislation has been imposed upon perfectly lawful people - doing nothing but *exercising their rights* at no expense to anybody else - requiring them to pay fees for the 'privilege' of being 'allowed' to bear arms, it is an abusive, degrading humiliation to insist that these decent people are to be held to the same standards as criminals.
The author of this obnoxious, belligerent column is a foul disgrace to both his newspaper (the Roanoke Times) and America.
-dk
The State Legislature needs to remove Concealed Carry Permits from the Public record....or at least ensure that no bulk disclosure can occur again.
The damage has been done to most of us who are listed.
At a minimum this was unscrupulous journalism. I assume that the State Police checked with their the Attorney General's office before releasing the data in bulk ?
The solution to this issue is legislation at the State or National level to protect the privacy rights of Concealed Carry Permit holders.
This is not just like a DMV record. Far more is as stake.
CHRISTIAN J TREJBAL 675 SCHOOL LN CHRISTIANSBURG, VA 24073
here he is hope he likes the attention.....
This ongoing irresponsible behavior on the part of the media makes an excellent case for Vermont/Alaska CCW.
Xavier thoughts has an interesting update on this cretin receiving a "suspect Package".
The lengths some cretins will go to to paint us as criminals.
Keith
Lenny, I agree with the sentiment of your comment but do not buy the distinction between publicizing CCW and DMV records. Both are prime examples of the kind of "sunshine" our society needs like a hole in the head, figuratively speaking. And both both will, not coincidentally, result in innocent people getting holes in their heads, literally speaking. Case in point: in 1989, actress Rebecca Schaeffer was murdered by a deranged fan who obtained her home address through the DMV, whose information at the time was a matter of public record. California's laws on concealed carry haven't improved a lick since then, but at least they had the good sense to make DMV records out of the "sunshine" and into privacy where they should have been all along.
The only distinction I can think of between California's DMV law then and Virginia's CHP law now is that at least Robert John Bardo had to shell out $250 to get the information the Roanoke Times dished out for free.
Dear Xrlq:
The other important distinction is that it is hard for me to see what harm releasing DMV records does to those who do not own cars. Releasing CCW records tells criminals that those who aren't listed can not defend themselves outside their homes.
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