WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. January 19, 2013 UPDATED 11:40 A.M. E.S.T.:
The Gannett Journal News has removed names and addresses of Westchester County and Rockland County gun permit holders from its website, first published December 23, 2012.
The publisher of the paper, Janet Hasson, in a letter to Journal News readers, defended the paper decision to publish names and addresses of gunowners, and explained why the paper took the names and addresses down.
The overall map still is shown on the Journal News website, but unlike the previous version, you cannot telescope in on a community, and see, street-by-street where gun permitholders are in residence on the street. The map is now simply a maze of red dots.
Previously, in the White Plains area, the map could be viewed to pinpoint every home on every street in White Plains where a gun permit for a pistol was registered. WPCNR counted up approximately 600 gun permit holders across White Plains, about 2% of 31,000 Registered voters, which is consistent with the Westchester County proportion (17,000 gun permit holders for pistols only, out of a one million population–1.7%)
Earlier this week, January 15, Hasson received a strong letter from the Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino, who called on the paper to “take the map down,” because it endangered residents who held gun permits. (The paper did not publish Mr. Astorino’s letter, but you can see that letter elsewhere on WPCNR at http://www.whiteplainscnr.com/admin.php?op=EditStory&sid=9446
Reacting to the map take-down today, County Executive Robert P. Astorino issued this statement to media:
“From the moment the Journal News published the gun owners map, it put law-abiding citizens, including judges, police officers and victims of domestic violence, at risk. I had asked the publisher to take down the map as a matter of public safety and common sense. Though four weeks too late, I am glad to see the Journal News has finally done the right thing and taken the map down.”
Within the last week, two gun permitholders’ homes have been burglarized, one in each county. In one on Davis Avenue in White Plains, merchandise and cash was taken, according to White Plains police, and a gun locker showed signs of being tampered with. In another such burglary in Clarkstown in Rockland County, weapons were taken by thieves.
The letter from Hasson, does not mention whether the two burglaries had any influence in the decision, or whether there was corporate pressure from Gannett executives to remove the map.
Here is the text of Ms. Hasson’s letter published explaining the paper decision to publish the map originally and the reason for the take-down which occurred late Friday afternoon:
To our readers:
In the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings, The Journal News thought the community should know where gun permit holders in their community were, in part to give parents an opportunity make careful decisions about their children’s safety.
The Journal News mapped the public database of permit holders, placing a dot on the address of every permit holder in Westchester and Rockland counties and providing the name and street address of each holder. The dots conveyed a powerful message: gun permit holders are everywhere in our counties.
But public reaction to the posting of names and street addresses was swift and divided. Many in the community expressed their gratitude for The Journal News’ decision to make the information available, but permit holders were outraged at what they considered to be an invasion of privacy. Gun owners from across the country vocally conveyed their anger and accused The Journal News of having exposed permit holders and non-permit holders alike to the risk of burglaries and other crimes. Hundreds of threats were made to Journal News staffers.
So intense was the opposition to our publication of the names and addresses that legislation passed earlier this week in Albany included a provision allowing permit holders to request confidentiality and imposing a 120-day moratorium on the release of permit holder data.
Today The Journal News has removed the permit data from lohud.com. Our decision to do so is not a concession to critics that no value was served by the posting of the map in the first place. On the contrary, we’ve heard from too many grateful community members to consider our decision to post information contained in the public record to have been a mistake. Nor is our decision made because we were intimidated by those who threatened the safety of our staffers. We know our business is a controversial one, and we do not cower.
But the database has been public for 27 days and we believe those who wanted to view it have done so already. As well, with the passage of time, the data will become outdated and inaccurate.
Equally important, the legislature has weighed in on the issue and representatives of residents from across the state have said that some New Yorkers who hold gun permits should have the right to keep that information private. As a news organization, we are constantly defending the public’s right to know. Consequently we do not endorse the way the legislature has chosen to limit public access to gun permit data. The statute is very broad and allows anyone who meets certain criteria within qualifying categories to keep their permit information private. When the moratorium concludes, far fewer permit holders will be identifiable, and those who want to know which houses on their block may have guns will not be able to get that information. But we are not deaf to voices who have said that new rules should be set for gun permit data.
Make no mistake, The Journal News will continue to report aggressively on gun ownership. We will continue to pursue our request for data from Putnam County, and will closely analyze the data for Westchester and Rockland counties when it once again becomes publicly available. And we will keep a snapshot of our map — with all its red dots — on our website to remind the community that guns are a fact of life we should never forget.
Sincerely,
Janet Hasson
President and Publisher