US newspaper still under fire for running map of gun permit holders

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2013/jan/04/gun-control-us-press-publishing

Version 0 of 1.

The debate over US gun laws in the aftermath of the Newtown massacre continues to rage and has taken some surprising media turns.

Most controversial of all was the decision by an upstate New York paper, the Journal News, to publish the names and addresses of handgun permit holders on 22 December with an accompanying map. That led to a fierce backlash, as reported in The Guardian four days later.

The gun owners of Westchester and Rockland counties complained that it put them in danger. Non-gun owners in those areas said it gave thieves a guide to which houses to avoid, thus putting them at risk of burglary.

One blogger retaliated by publishing the names and addresses of the Journal-News staff. Many others then did the same.

The Journal News obtained the list of gun permit holders through a freedom of information request and its publisher, Janet Hasson, defended the decision to publish:

"We knew publication of the database would be controversial, but we felt sharing as much information as we could about gun ownership in our area was important in the aftermath of the Newtown shootings."

After the row broke out, one county, Putnam, defied state law by refusing to hand over its gun data despite the paper's freedom of information act request.

And there has been continuing criticism of the paper ever since, with several people being quoted (examples here in the Washington Post and here in the Christian Science Monitor).

But, as another Washington Post article published yesterday, pointed out, there has been no rise in the number of burglaries in the Journal News circulation area.

Asked it here had been a spike in break-ins, a chief at Rockland county sheriff's office said: "Not that I'm aware of."

An extremely unfortunate juxtaposition

It is astonishing that any paper, let alone one in Connecticut close to Newtown, could make this mistake, but the Stamford Advocate certainly did.

It ran the story headlined "A different Sandy Hook Elementary opens" next to an advert for a gun show.

When Jim Romenesko publicised the fact, the paper's publishers, the Hearst Connecticut Media Group, responded quickly.

Its executive editor, Barbara Roessner, issued a statement saying: "Our newspapers should not be running gun ads - including ads for antique and collectible gun shows - next to stories about Sandy Hook.

"It's insensitive, and it shouldn't have happened. It was an oversight, and we apologise for it. We have taken steps to make sure it doesn't happen again."

<em>Sources:</em> The Guardian/Wikipedia/Mediaite/Poynter/Washington Post/Christian Science Monitor/Jim Romenesko/Stamford Advocate