The entirely predictable consequences of the Journal News’ decision to publish a map of gun-owners marches on…
Rockland County Sheriff Louis Falco, who spoke at a news conference flanked by other county officials, said the Journal News’ decision to post an online map of names and addresses of handgun owners Dec. 23 has put law enforcement officers in danger.
“They have inmates coming up to them and telling them exactly where they live. That’s not acceptable to me,” Falco said, according to Newsday.
Robert Riley, an officer with the White Plains Police Department and president of its Patrolman’s Benevolent Association, agreed.
“You have guys who work in New York City who live up here. Now their names and addresses are out there, too,” he said adding that there are 8,000 active and retired NYPD officers currently living in Rockland County.
Local lawmakers also say that they intend to introduce legislation that prevents information about legal gun owners from being released to the public.
Please don’t offer the Journal News’ editorial staff an easy out by claiming they’re too dumb or ill-informed to have possibly seen this coming. That a decision to publish the names and addresses of legal gun owners would prove useful to our criminal class had to be part of the editorial team’s calculation. But because they’re obviously a bunch of out-of-control, anti-gun zealots, they likely considered the fallout worth it.
There is one consequence the editors might not have seen coming, though, and that was the map spooking those who didn’t own a firearm into getting one:
Legis. Aron Wieder (D-Spring Valley) called the publication of the list “irresponsible journalism” and said he now fears for his safety because the map broadcast that he does not have a gun license. At the news conference Friday morning, he handed a $150 certified check and a completed pistol permit application to Rockland County Clerk Paul Piperato.
“I never owned a gun but now I have no choice,” Wieder said. “I have been exposed as someone that has no gun. And I’ll do anything, anything to protect my family.”
This is what happens when you allow left-wing activists to control a newsroom. In a fit of misguided, self-righteous indignation, they run amok. This is also what happens when a newsroom operates in what we can only assume is a left-wing bubble. As we all know, the Left’s idea of “diversity” never includes a diversity of opinion. So when everyone thinks exactly alike, there’s no one with a different and more grounded worldview to talk you down.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC