A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
Someone recently put me on a Twitter list titled "Jews." Even though I'm not Jewish, people building lists of Jews just makes me nervous.
Lists in general make nervous. So I can't imagine what the folks at the Journal-News (Gannett's paper for the Lower Hudson area of New York) were thinking when they published a detailed map showing which people own which type of guns registered to which addresses in Westchester County.
My first thought was that this was a huge disservice to those residents who don't own guns -- now criminals know which houses to rob with low resistance.
But what a bizarre thing to map -- as if law-abiding gun owners are a threat of which to be wary. The story attempting to explain why they're exposing this information begins with the news that a mentally ill man had an arsenal of weapons and shot a neighbor in the head without provocation. Ergo, here's a list of all the law-abiding gun owners.
A Reason reader brought it to that magazine's attention with the note that the map "is why you should acquire all of your firearms illegally." Sounds about right.
The Roanoke Times (VA) published a list of legal gun owners a few years ago and within hours had to pull the database. Readers decided turnabout was fair play and published the personal information of the editorial writer who had mocked them for worrying about the King of England trying to invade their home. Liberal media watchdogs such as the Poynter Institute questioned the wisdom of publishing the list.
Readers in Westchester County have gone ahead and published the personal information of the reporters and editors involved in publishing the story.
Obviously the government requires gun owners to register. This public information is, well, public. But just because something is required by the government and is public doesn't mean civil society is aided by making it public.
And while, as a reporter, I understand that there is no thing such as complete objectivity when covering any news event, I think that maybe reporters should admit that they're incapable of covering this topic rationally.
Byron York has a great piece on the brazen advocacy on display by supposedly mainstream reporters. He lists some of the broadcast politicking going on before moving to Twitter:
"Reporters on my Twitter feed seem to hate the NRA more than anything else, ever," Atlantic writer Jeffrey Goldberg noted recently. (In the aftermath of the Aurora, Colorado mass shooting, but before Newtown, Goldberg wrote a balanced assessment of the gun issue in which he advocated both stronger gun controls and more widespread gun ownership.)
When Goldberg made his comment, a writer from The New Republic named Marc Tracy responded, "So either reporters on Twitter are crazy or the NRA is uniquely hateful. Which do you think it is?"
"I think the NRA is ridiculous and horrible, but I think some reporters are fulfilling stereotypes," Goldberg told Tracy.
"What stereotype?" asked Tracy. "That they think they are smarter and better than a retrograde, evil organization? They are! We are!"
It's a free country. Reporters are free to hate the 2nd Amendment. But for the sake of the journalistic enterprise, they should admit they're too irrational to cover this topic even remotely fairly.
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Nov '11
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.:
A Reasonreader brought it to that magazine's attention with the note that the map "is why you should acquire all of your firearms illegally." Sounds about right.
Funny, I had the same thought.
That map is a great disincentive to legally purchase a gun.
Somebody on Reason made the point recently that the more obnoxious the gun law, the less incentive there is to comply with the law.
And its true. People are generally law abiding, but they'll chuck that out the window if the law is odious and inconvenient.
I'll happily not speed, but I don't follow the posted speed limit. I go as fast as I can get away with and as fast as is safe and prudent for me to drive. And on my own street, a street lined with houses full of children, that speed is about 5mph below the posted limit.
Jul '11
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
Funny, I just re upped my lapsed membership and slapped a sticker on my truck. Anythink to cover up the Romney sticker.
May '10
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
I think there should be a law that requires non-gun owners to post a sign in their yard saying:
This House has no guns.
If they are so proud of it, they should advertise it, right? I mean, what is the problem with people knowing you don't have guns?
Dec '10
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
I can think of no better argument against registration.
Jul '11
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
The Government, the bigger issue IMHO, already knows who owns guns and where they live.
The newspaper is merely helping robbers target gun control advocates.
This is why I am glad there is no registry for 3-D printers. Looking forward to printing my guns :-D.
Dec '10
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
So when they do outlaw guns how much resitance will the NRA put up against a court order to turn over their membership lists?
This whole thing (Newtown and the aftermath) has me thinking, "to hell with the bills; my tax return is going all into weapons."
Nov '11
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
Barkha Herman:
This is why I am glad there is no registry for 3-D printers. Looking forward to printing my guns :-D. · 15 minutes ago
YET!
Give it time. Prohibitionists always lag behind the times.
As soon as someone figures out that you can print guns/drugs/fois gras on them, some busybody will begin prohibiting them.
Dec '10
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
And another thing (that gets under my skin): private sales of firearms without tracing paperwork are not illegal!
From the ATF website:
A more proper title would be "A Powerful Argument for Acquiring Guns Privately." Some states (read liberal bastions) require record keeping/reporting for private sales.
Aug '11
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
The Twitter that Byron York posted, between Goldberg at the Atlantic and "Marc Tracy" was shocking. I mean, I guess I expected it. But-- at least after JournoList-- I wouldn't expect people to say it it so casually. The starting presumption is that I'm simply better than you, your disagreement with me is proof that you are a bad person. I think a signifcant portion of the problems we have with the MSM come from that. I really can't get too upset with lefties and liberals who disagree with me because they're read different books. It's easy to get upset (but wrong to stay upset) when you argue with someone who is making a principled case for an opposing positon based on good faith argument and well meaning research into the field.
It's infuriating when all of that is cover for what is basically an ego trip.
Aug '11
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
And I don't have guns. But no, it isn't a powerful argument for acquiring guns illegally. It's a powerful argument for why you can get pulled over and end going to jail.
In any case, I actually don't think guns are stolen so often. Would theives target gun owners more? My intuition says... maybe, but most likely not. Most thieves know who they are stealing from already, and most break in's are smash and grabs. You get a few crazy ones, but TVs, Xboxes and Jewelry are still more valuable than guns, most likely because the later can be used or unloaded quickly. I 'm not saying this definitively, but through my work I have a good amount of anecdotal evidence. But again, this is just anecdote and intuition.
Jun '10
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
This may be a tactic of downstream media orgs. The Commercial Appeal here in Memphis published such a list a year or so ago. I would be interested to know if this is occurring all over.
May '10
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
Irrational or biased?
Given the profound anti-gun bias widely evidenced in the media, coupled with the belief that people are basically good, they are operating quite rationally according to their own world-view.
Isn't it interesting it seems so many of the people who ardently maintain "you can't legislate morality" when it comes to sex and drugs think that attempting to legislate morality via restricting and confiscating firearms is possible.
Oct '10
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
Did anyone else have the sudden thought, "what happened to that supposed right to privacy that's 'implied' in the Constitution"? They got this information via FOIA requests; isn't there a reasonable argument that granting such requests was unconstitutional?
Nov '11
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
The right to privacy doesn't apply to government records, it applies to individual citizens. So really the right to privacy is being violated in requiring guns to be registered.
Jul '11
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
Fred Cole
The right to privacy doesn't apply to government records, it applies to individual citizens. So really the right to privacy is being violated in requiring guns to be registered. · 0 minutes ago
Government registry is the bigger issue over a newspaper printing names...
Oct '10
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
Fred Cole
The right to privacy doesn't apply to government records, it applies to individual citizens. So really the right to privacy is being violated in requiring guns to be registered. · 5 minutes ago
The newspaper published the names of people licensed to owned guns, whether they owned them or not. Licensing does make sense, to me, but it shouldn't be abused this way.
Nov '11
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
Joseph Eagar
Fred Cole
The right to privacy doesn't apply to government records, it applies to individual citizens. So really the right to privacy is being violated in requiring guns to be registered. · 5 minutes ago
The newspaper published the names of people licensed to owned guns, whether they owned them or not. Licensing does make sense, to me, but it shouldn't be abused this way. · 5 minutes ago
I don't disagree with you. But then again I'm against licensing of just about anything.
Nov '10
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
I think your point has been THE point for quite some time. I mean...why can't the left apply the same logic to guns as they do to marijauna?
Nov '10
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
From Fredly - "I don't disagree with you. But then again I'm against licensing of just about anything."
Sometimes I agree with Fred. Sometimes... ;-)
Nov '11
Re: A Powerful Argument For Acquiring Guns Illegally
Why can't people on the right apply the same logic to marijuana as they do to guns?
Ken Owsley: From Fredly - "I don't disagree with you. But then again I'm against licensing of just about anything."
Sometimes I agree with Fred. Sometimes... ;-) · 6 minutes ago
I'm sure we agree more than we disagree, but I suspect I go much further than you re licensing.