# Paper's employees get death threats (guns) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 7, 2013, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355 "2013-01-07T16:23:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/21 "2013-01-13T15:50:35Z")
> [@artemis](#): > > Exactly the same element: the nutcase one. It exist on all sides of the social and political spectrum, and any time something that raises strong feelings happens, the appropriate nutcases come crawling out. It’s as predictable as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. > > And I completely agree with **Marley 23** : the behavior in question is intolerable, and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. … but a slightly dif element when instead of just nutcases you have organized political groups protesting in front of their homes. Note that I didn’t go so far as to use words like “threatening” or “terrorizing”… since I don’t remember the details. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/22 "2013-01-13T22:26:59Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I could easily see this paper getting sued if any of the people on that list get robbed or family members injured. > > I’d be very nervous if my name and address was published. Heck they warn people these days to not even put a large screen tv box on the curb. You don’t want to advertise that you bought one. To tell the world there’s guns at this address ripe for stealing is a crime waiting to happen. Because if I were a robber, I would definitely want to rob the homes of gun owners. Especially while people are home. Heaven knows the best way to get a gun is to wrench it out of the hands of its unwilling owner. That said, this was irresponsible and ridiculous. On both sides, but especially the side threatening violence. I guess I’m prejudiced that way. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/23 "2013-01-13T22:39:54Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Since then, the employees of the paper have had their names and addresses printed on social media sites, have been threatened with assassination, with being shot (:rolleyes: ) on their way home, and have had envelopes of white powder sent to their workplace. Predictable; pro-gun people appear to mostly be thugs & fanatics, and a great many appear to be at least borderline psychopaths if not the real thing. > [@aceplace57](#): > > That newspaper put people’s lives in danger. What happens if somebody uses that list of gun owners to rob houses? Why would they? It’s not like some homeowner having a gun is going to matter one way or another. They aren’t going to be concerned if some homeowner has a gun; they’ll be concerned if there’s someone there or not, if there’s a dog, if there’s an alarm system. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/24 "2013-01-13T23:40:08Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Predictable; pro-gun people appear to mostly be thugs & fanatics, and a great many appear to be at least borderline psychopaths if not the real thing. That’s only because those are the ones who are the loudest. The vast majority of gun owners I know are sane, rational people, who actually can’t stand these losers. It’s always the extremists you hear about, because they make the most noise. I have quite a few gun owners in my family – normal, sane people, who don’t go around screaching about how the government is going to steal their guns away – and if someone had done this to them, I’d have been pissed. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/25 "2013-01-14T16:18:19Z")
> [@](#): > > Brewster, N.Y. – 1/13/2013 – Today Senator Greg Ball (Patterson – R, C, I) announced that a burglary has been reported on Davis Ave. in White Plains, New York that evidently ties into The Journal News gun maps. It is reported that the burglar used The Journal News’ interactive gun map to target a home included on the map. Luckily the gun was locked up and no one was hurt. [Link](http://www.nysenate.gov/press-release/breaking-news-attempted-gun-burglary-tied-journal-news-gun-maps) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/26 "2013-01-14T16:24:46Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > I work with someone whose spouse is a reporter there; covers local goings-on about Westchester. None of the employees were warned, and no communications about how to deal with calls were shared. They started getting threatening calls, packages, people driving by. Scared the crap out of them. If there was any doubt remaining, this pretty well establishes that the Journal News is run by morons who lack the gift of foresight. Like I said, when the paper published the map they should have expected their own addresses and other personal information to be posted in response. It was just the most predictable thing in the world. > [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > [Link](http://www.nysenate.gov/press-release/breaking-news-attempted-gun-burglary-tied-journal-news-gun-maps) > [@State Senator's Press Release](#): > > It is reported that the burglar used The Journal News’ interactive gun map to target a home included on the map. I am sure the evidence behind this allegation will be disclosed very soon. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/27 "2013-01-14T17:51:59Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > That newspaper put people’s lives in danger. What happens if somebody uses that list of gun owners to rob houses? Maybe they find someones 14 year old daughter at home and rape her. Or maybe mom gets beaten and raped. A lot of household robberies turn ugly when the robber finds a victim in the house. Just last week an Alabama mom hid in the attic to avoid a burglar. He searched the entire house before finding her. He could have simply stole her purse, tv and car. But he wanted her. Thank goodness she had a pistol waiting for him. > > If that newspaper causes even one tragedy, then god help them. They deserve whatever happens. I thought owning a gun was supposed to prevent that sort of thing? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/28 "2013-01-14T18:47:28Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I thought owning a gun was supposed to prevent that sort of thing? There is something very weird about the argument that gun owners are being endangered here. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/29 "2013-01-14T20:00:51Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I thought owning a gun was supposed to prevent that sort of thing? Two things. First, they aren’t always at home, and so someone who wants a chance at a free gun now knows what houses to watch until they’re empty. Second, the first time a criminal walks through one of those doors and gets killed because they thought the house was empty will bring the usual hue and cry about how gun owners committed vigilante justice on the poor criminal and how no property is worth someone’s life. The point is that the paper was playing at being outrageous, and the succeeded, at least in the sense that they outraged people. They really ought not have done that. It’s not really anybody’s business. That it’s a matter of public record does not mean that it should be plastered everywhere, any more than someone’s DUI conviction or their house value or pending bankruptcy should be given any more notice than the 3 column inches in the back of the newspaper they usually get. If you do something knowing full well you’re going to piss people off you better be ready for what happens next. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/30 "2013-01-14T20:30:31Z")
The same sorta stuff about people-with-nothing-better-to-do phoning ‘death threats’ occurs here too, without any guns in the country. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/31 "2013-01-14T20:47:11Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > someone who wants a chance at a free gun now knows what houses to watch until they’re empty. Maybe I don’t have the burglar mindset, but I think if I wanted a gun badly enough to burglarize a house for it, I’d burglarize houses where I thought I might find cash or easily fenceable goods, but no guns, then _buy_ a gun from someone. That way if I was wrong about the house being unoccupied, I wouldn’t wind up perforated. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/32 "2013-01-15T05:50:05Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I may be splitting hairs here, but his employees are suffering because of the vigilante element in our national psyche. While printing those names and addresses was the wrong thing to do, retaliation against the other employees is worse, as it may spur some other nutcake out there to actually take harmful action against them. Printing of the names is also a vigilante action. Paper’s employees get death threats? Prison guards whose addresses were printed are getting threats from prisoners. Women who have guns to protect themselves against violent exes and didn’t want them to know their current addresses are also in trouble. Fuck this paper. The NY Times said they wouldn’t print the Mohammed cartoons out of “responsibility”. It’s about time the media showed “responsibility” to the average American. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/33 "2013-01-15T07:47:30Z")
N/m ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/34 "2013-01-15T14:41:22Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > Printing of the names is also a vigilante action. > > Paper’s employees get death threats? Prison guards whose addresses were printed are getting threats from prisoners. Women who have guns to protect themselves against violent exes and didn’t want them to know their current addresses are also in trouble. > > Fuck this paper. > > The NY Times said they wouldn’t print the Mohammed cartoons out of “responsibility”. It’s about time the media showed “responsibility” to the average American. They do…it’s just that they get to decide who is “average” also. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/35 "2013-01-15T14:42:46Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Maybe I don’t have the burglar mindset, but I think if I wanted a gun badly enough to burglarize a house for it, I’d burglarize houses where I thought I might find cash or easily fenceable goods, but no guns, then _buy_ a gun from someone. That way if I was wrong about the house being unoccupied, I wouldn’t wind up perforated. IANA burglar, but ISTM that a burglar wants to take the easiest route to cash. That’s why their burglars instead of working for a living. Selling stolen goods and then having to give up that money to buy a gun lessens the profit. It’s better to steal the gun directly. That way he gets to keep any cash he finds, he gets to keep the other property that he can turn into cash, _and_ get doesn’t have to pay for a gun (which he can use to get more cash). ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/36 "2013-01-15T16:16:32Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > … but a slightly dif element when instead of just nutcases you have organized political groups protesting in front of their homes. Organized political groups protesting are exercising their First Amendment rights. Threats of violence, on the other hand, are not legally protected speech. The nutcases do the latter, not simply the former. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/37 "2013-01-16T14:22:05Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > There is something very weird about the argument that gun owners are being endangered here. Just because you have a fun, does not mean you look forward to using it any more than wearing a bulletproof vest makes it a good idea to start a gunfight. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2013, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/38 "2013-01-19T05:58:15Z")
Paper takes down database: > **[Urgent: Facing storm of criticism, Westchester paper removes gun permit...](http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/urgent-facing-storm-of-criticism.html)** > > In a letter to readers late this afternoon , Journal News Publisher Janet Hasson disclosed the daily has removed from its website a datab... > [@](#): > > In a letter to readers late this afternoon, Journal News Publisher Janet Hasson disclosed the daily has removed from its website a database of handgun permit holder names and addresses in two New York counties after weeks of scorching pushback from gun rights advocates. > > Hasson said the decision wasn’t a concession to critics or to those who had threatened harm to her and other Journal News employees – threats that spurred her to post armed guards at the office of the suburban New York City paper and at her own home. > > “But the database has been public for 27 days and we believe those who wanted to view it have done so already,” she wrote. “As well, with the passage of time, the data will become outdated and inaccurate.” ---
**Author:** ![Terraplane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Terraplane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terraplane)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2013, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/39 "2013-01-19T08:56:02Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > That newspaper put people’s lives in danger. What happens if somebody uses that list of gun owners to rob houses? Maybe they find someones 14 year old daughter at home and rape her. Or maybe mom gets beaten and raped. A lot of household robberies turn ugly when the robber finds a victim in the house. Just last week an Alabama mom hid in the attic to avoid a burglar. He searched the entire house before finding her. He could have simply stole her purse, tv and car. But he wanted her. Thank goodness she had a pistol waiting for him. > > If that newspaper causes even one tragedy, then god help them. They deserve whatever happens. Have you ever considered just how much time you spend imagining things that don’t actually happen? ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2013, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355/40 "2013-01-19T13:02:21Z")
Here this sort of stuff is not public information, and publishing it would be a breach of the Data Protection Act. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/papers-employees-get-death-threats-guns/646355.md?page=3)