NY State legislation would severely limit public access to gun permit lists

[David LaPell]

State legislation would severely limit public access to gun permit lists :: Your Right To Know :: PostStar.com

[Hunt200]

About time, I will be emailing my reps to support this.

[stumper]

While I hate to see infringements on any of our constitutional rights I'm on the fence with this one for one very good reason. Back in December of 1995 NC enacted the shall issue concealed carry permit. I got mine in January of 1996 .... Some many months later our local newsrag published an article entitled "Packing Heat" and simply listed all of the people in the county that had gotten or applied for the CCP - simply because they could ........ A good example of the right to know put to bad use. Obviously poor judgement by the newspaper but this is what happens when people (newspeople for the most part) without good sense, or with an agenda, can have wide open access to records

[RIDE-RED 350r]

Personally, I dont see any reason why the names and addresses of pistol permit holders should be "public information". My license to own a handgun in NYS is between me and NYS. Not me and my neighbors. I realize that in a sense, NYS is my neighbors. What im talking about is NYS in the capacity of Law Enforcement agencies. Not the general public at large...This is not like a convicted felon database at all. I have commited no crimes in the past, why should it be public knowledge that im a permit holder? I think that information like this being made public can both make you a target for theft, and also could be a deterrent, depends on the situation. I support this legislation wholeheartedly.

Just emailed Sen Griffo, Assemblyman Schroeder, and my Assemblywoman, Claudia Tenney in support of this bill....

[Janitor]

I think the paper should start publishing lists of names & addresses for homeowners who only have a phone for their personal protection plan.

Or would that be an invasion of privacy?

[RIDE-RED 350r]

I hear ya Janitor. In today's world, everyone is sooooo worried about preserving privacy. One example being the doctors office. How many conesent forms and privacy statments does one sign before seeing the doctor. Its nice to see some NY politicians standing up for the privacy rights of law abiding firearms owners. If they had a list of permit numbers, or a list of statistics stating how many permit holders reside in a given town or county without including names and addresses I would be fine with that. But attaching our names and addresses to it is way over the line IMHO...

There seems to be this misguided notion that other people have "the right" to know if their neighbors are firearms permit holders. I say no. I have the right to keep and bear arms, but am not obligated to disclose to anyone but Law Enforcement the fact that I own firearms. Why do so many John Q. Publics think I am obliged to disclose ANYTHING to them unless I want to? When you commit a crime and are convicted, you have forfeited certain rights to privacy in the process. We have broken no law, why are our privacy rights taken from us???