Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Gutsy

A New York Newspaper has listed the names and addresses of all concealed weapon permittees in its area of service.  This is a gutsy thing to do and somewhat in line with what I had suggested a couple of weeks ago.  The permittees are angry but I think it is a deterrent to 'bad guys' from messing with them.  They disagree and say more break ins to steal their guns will occur.  I doubt it.  Generally speaking these are very frightened and neurotic folks and you don't want to be bothering them.

It does bring up the question if such a list of permittees is public information in New Mexico.  We all know the Governor loves being recognized as a gun toting shill for the NRA, but do we all have a right  to know who else is?  Interesting question.  Will anyone in the media ask the question?  Can they pull themselves away from seeking out police dash cam videos long enough to ask?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Somebody might tell those people, If you don't want anyone knowing you're dong something, don't do it.

Someone might explain to the idiots what a public record is, too, and why it's public. If it's a public record there's not even any argument.

Those are our records. First of all we paid for them. We foot the bill for the salaries of the people who process the paperwork, the paper, the computers, the background checks, all of it.

But most important, they're public because this is a democracy and it won't function if we don't know what our government is doing. We can't be an informed citizenry. There are some very limited exceptions that allow some secrets to be kept, like national security and very limited privacy concerns like the identities of minors and this doesn't even begin to fall under any of them.

Remember when Heather Wilson was in state government and decided that her husband's criminal record would henceforth be stored in her office? These elected officials who get arrested for everything from drunk driving to beating their wives to embezzlement would love it if we never found out. Pretty soon they'd be having swimming pools built at public expense in their father's backyards like they do it in Moriarty.




Anonymous said...

Hey Jim, I thought you might be interested in this most opportune article in the NY Times today on the rising power of the NRA. Very compelling.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/the-n-r-a-at-the-bench/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121227

Charlie