Dusty sent along a link to No Silence Here, a local blog at KnoxNews.com, about the Memphis Commercial Appeal's posting a searchable database of Tennessee concealed carry permit holders. This is what Dusty had to say:
Just sent this to my buddy in Tennessee who carries a weapon. I then sent a copy of the page from the Commercial Appeal with his info. Coming soon to a Kansas paper near you?
Dusty
P.S. Scroll down to the city of Memphis in the bar chart. There's a reason they call it "Mogadishu." These permits are needed, if you ask me.
Predictably, this raised a shitestorm of outrage, as the database contained addresses, not just names. Say Uncle, the Greyhawk of the gunbloggers, and others reacted and caught the paper's attention, and in a way designed to catch the attention of the newspaper, which they did - and they at least stripped out the addresses.
I actually liked the idea of taking the senior management personnel (leave the rest alone, they implement decisions, not make them) and do public records searches on them, and create a postable database. That might help them understand the concerns of people who find their information just hanging out there to be had.
The usual arguments are "You're publishing a map that says "Here are where there are guns to steal!"
True enough. I would note that in response to Dusty's Kansas question, the Armorer doesn't carry, and therefore doesn't have a permit. I do have an 03 FFL, however. But that data is protected because ATFE did figure out that posting 03 FFL data in their EZ Check system for dealers would be tantamount to publishing a menu for sophisticated gun thieves. Downside, I can't fax my license to a dealer, because they can't verify them, but hey, that's okay.
I have another argument for *not* doing it, however. It's the flip side of the first.
Because the thieves can just as likely use the database to look up targets and say to themselves... "Hmmmmm, concealed permit holder - trained, with stated willingness to use it - let's find a softer target. clickety-click-click "Okay, this guy has no permit, lives in a nice area, likely to have some good stuff, I'll go hit him."
Of course, that might lead him to the Castle, which he might find annoying. But there's your lawsuit from the other side... "The guy hit my house because he figured there was a good chance I was a gun-fearing wussy!"
Just a thought. Certainly does show that we've got some tinkering to do with our concepts and the realities of privacy in a digital age.
Public records that were public but you still had to go in to a central location and pore over them really is different from public records where anyone with a digital device from anywhere can quickly gather that data, and anonymously.
]]>