It's farily obvious which way the majority feels. Let's put this to a vote. ;-) Someone will stand up to defend any position.....it doesn't make them right. Using the FOIA as a poorly veiled excuse to push your liberal agenda and pressure law abiding citizens is a poor excuse for journalism.
Is there a law in CA that addresses "brandishing" a firearm? If so, then CCW permit holders are duty bound to keep their weapons concealed, and out of sight of the general public. Essentially, this article "brandished" all their firearms. Why would you care if your law abiding neighbor carried a handgun? I'd be more concerned about the driving records of my neighbors, or, if they drinks too much. How about the sex offenders that reside in your area? Legal gun owners are an historically reliable and responsible group. Concealed carry license holders tend to be even more conscientious about their weapon and their responsibility to the general public.
Maybe the "Journal" should change their "Privacy Policy" that they post on their "About" section of the web site: PRIVACY POLICY North Coast Journal Inc. respects your privacy. Our complete privacy policy is below, but the bottom line is this: North Coast Journal Inc. will not sell or share any of your personal information to a third party, period. North Coast Journal Inc. will gather personally identifiable information about you only when you provide it voluntarily for specific purposes such as posting an ad or signing up to blog with us.
There is no constructive reason to publish a story like this. Why not compare the percentage of legal gun owners that commit crimes vs. people who possess guns illegally. A paper in Roanoke, Virginia went down this same road already. It did not end well for the author. His home address and phone number, as well as all his publicly available information(including google maps to his home) was widely distributed on the internet. He was less than pleased once the tables were turned. If I remember correctly, when DHL delivered a legitimate package to his house days later he panicked, called the police and wound up with the Bomb Squad shutting down his neighborhood. Here's CNN's take on the story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN4smdjU1e8 Just because you can walk into a government building and request the information doesn't mean you should compile and publish that information.
Re: “Pistol Packing People”
Robash, you are correct in assuming that printing the CCW holders names does not necessarily jeapordize their safety on the street. Secondly, your assertion about the opportunistic nature of criminals couldn't be more accurate. The trouble remains in the printing of the names, though. An intelligent thief can get the address of a CCW holder with the County name and Google. Once he has a list of targets he can watch the homes to see if they are generally empty during work days. The criminal will take their "best" shot at an empty home. By way of example, I chose a gentleman named Hugo from the list of names. Thirty seconds later, with nothing more than his unusual name and County of residence, I had his phone #, address and a google map of his house. You don't find that remotely scary? As for locking up guns, I have children so I chose to invest in a $2000 safe that weighs 1000lbs. empty and is as big as a refridgerator. No small time criminal can defeat it or even move it for that matter. Not everyone can afford to do that, or has the space to accomodate it. I'd wager that most gun owners use trigger locks to disable their weapons or small personal safes to thwart kids. A theif would grab the small safe and run, or, just break it open. No responsible gun owner wants one of his weapons to find its way into a criminals hand. Will all the CCW holders houses be broken into, of course not. Does it increase the potential that it COULD happen to some, sure.