US paper’s detailed gun map sparks fury

WASHINGTON - Agence France-Presse

This map, provided by the Journal News, shows residents who have handgun permits in two counties.

A New York newspaper has sparked outrage by publishing a detailed map with thousands of names and addresses of gun permit holders in the wake of the Newtown school shooting.

The publication came amid a heated debate over gun control revived after the Connecticut massacre. The Journal News in New York state’s Westchester County obtained the publicly available information from county clerks and published it earlier this week in an interactive map alongside an article entitled “The Gun Owner Next Door.”

Invasion of piracy

The paper obtained the names and addresses of more than 33,000 permit holders in two counties, though it said that more than 13,000 had no activity in the last five years, and could belong to people who moved or passed away. It said it was awaiting information on 11,000 permit-holders from a third county.

Critics slammed the move as an invasion of privacy that could put gun owners at risk, and the newspaper said it had received hundreds of calls from people who feared for their safety or felt their privacy had been violated.

The newspaper defended the publication, saying the information was legally obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request and that its readers had a right to know whether their neighbors owned firearms.