TFred
Regular Member
After about a three year hiatus, it appears that one Fredericksburg area news outlet has again declared war on the privacy of Concealed Handgun Permit holders. As alerted today by the VCDL's VA-ALERT newsletter, the Stafford County Sun, a Media General Newspaper, has printed a list of approximately 100 names of Stafford County residents who received a CHP during the month of September 2011. (Page 3 of the November 11-17 edition.)
As should probably be expected, the reporting is incorrect as they state at the top of the list, "GUN PERMITS The following were issued concealed weapons permits in September". The compilation of the list was attributed to "Jim Lawrence," described elsewhere on the website as "a contributing writer at the Stafford County Sun."
EVEN WORSE. I just spent a few minutes browsing the paper's website... even worse, the published list is ON LINE, for any criminal, violent ex-spouse, home-invader wannabe, to read and learn that there are likely to be firearms stored at the permit-holder's home. For obvious reasons, I am not going to post the URL of the article here, but it only took a few moments for me to find. Fortunately, both print and web versions are limited to only what appear to be full legal names, and do not include any address information, other than the obvious, "somewhere in Stafford County."
Obviously this is very distressing, and demands immediate attention. Quite frankly, it astounds me that literally within a day of the final awareness that the Saslaw-Marsh "death committees" were indeed, finally dead, a news outlet would open up this old wound. I am of the firm opinion that the primary reason news outlets stopped this practice about 3 years ago was because of the headway we were making in the arena of public opinion on just how ridiculous it is to allow these records to be open to the public in the first place.
We need to use this to our full advantage to fight like heck for a law to be passed during THIS SESSION to finally protect this most sensitive information from the prying eyes of the public, including criminals, ex-domestic partners, and anyone else who might find it beneficial to know where to go steal themselves some guns.
See additional info posted below.
TFred
Text from today's VA-ALERT notice:
Low-resolution photo of the printed names:
Photo of Jim Lawrence from Stafford County Sun website. (Kind of creepy how much he looks like United States Attorney General Eric Holder, no?)
As should probably be expected, the reporting is incorrect as they state at the top of the list, "GUN PERMITS The following were issued concealed weapons permits in September". The compilation of the list was attributed to "Jim Lawrence," described elsewhere on the website as "a contributing writer at the Stafford County Sun."
EVEN WORSE. I just spent a few minutes browsing the paper's website... even worse, the published list is ON LINE, for any criminal, violent ex-spouse, home-invader wannabe, to read and learn that there are likely to be firearms stored at the permit-holder's home. For obvious reasons, I am not going to post the URL of the article here, but it only took a few moments for me to find. Fortunately, both print and web versions are limited to only what appear to be full legal names, and do not include any address information, other than the obvious, "somewhere in Stafford County."
Obviously this is very distressing, and demands immediate attention. Quite frankly, it astounds me that literally within a day of the final awareness that the Saslaw-Marsh "death committees" were indeed, finally dead, a news outlet would open up this old wound. I am of the firm opinion that the primary reason news outlets stopped this practice about 3 years ago was because of the headway we were making in the arena of public opinion on just how ridiculous it is to allow these records to be open to the public in the first place.
We need to use this to our full advantage to fight like heck for a law to be passed during THIS SESSION to finally protect this most sensitive information from the prying eyes of the public, including criminals, ex-domestic partners, and anyone else who might find it beneficial to know where to go steal themselves some guns.
See additional info posted below.
TFred
Text from today's VA-ALERT notice:
**************************************************
10. Stafford County Sun magazine publishing permit holders' names again
**************************************************
The idiots at the Stafford County Sun don't realize their actions in publishing the names of CHP holders could cause someone to lose their life. It was support for newspapers publishing CHP holders' information that played a role in Senator Houck losing his Senate seat.
I receive this from a VCDL member:
-
You may have have heard this already, but I just discovered that a Stafford County paper known as the "Stafford County Sun" has published a list of names of those who have recently received CHPs on page 3 of their issue dated November 11-17. This is a paper that is basically delivered so far free of charge. Mine came today. The phone # is 659-4466.
**************************************************
10. Stafford County Sun magazine publishing permit holders' names again
**************************************************
The idiots at the Stafford County Sun don't realize their actions in publishing the names of CHP holders could cause someone to lose their life. It was support for newspapers publishing CHP holders' information that played a role in Senator Houck losing his Senate seat.
I receive this from a VCDL member:
-
You may have have heard this already, but I just discovered that a Stafford County paper known as the "Stafford County Sun" has published a list of names of those who have recently received CHPs on page 3 of their issue dated November 11-17. This is a paper that is basically delivered so far free of charge. Mine came today. The phone # is 659-4466.
**************************************************
Low-resolution photo of the printed names:
Photo of Jim Lawrence from Stafford County Sun website. (Kind of creepy how much he looks like United States Attorney General Eric Holder, no?)