FIRED UP

NY Paper Publishes Gun Database

Angering gun advocates on social media.

Some gun owners proudly posed with their new firearms on Christmas morning, but others are not willing to be so public. After a local New York newspaper, The Journal News, published an online database of local gun-permit holders, gun advocates took to social media to complain that their privacy has been violated and their safety compromised. The database was legally obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, and has since gone viral, inciting a debate over whether making the information public was irresponsible. "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," said CynDee Royle, editor and vice president/news of The Journal News.