Ex-Burglars Admit Gun Owner-Outing Map Helps Criminals
January 6, 2013 | Filed Under 2nd Amendment, Anti-Americanism, Constitution, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Gun Control, Guns, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, New York, Newspapers, Progressives, Regulation, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off
-By Warner Todd Huston
Fox News recently reported that ex-crooks are denouncing the New York paper that published the names and addresses of thousands of the state’s gun owners saying that publishing the information was nothing less than a road map for criminals planning home invasions and burglaries.
In the last half of December, the Journal News a small paper in suburban Westchester, New York, published an interactive map featuring the names and addresses of the gun owners in Rockland County. This information, the ex-burglars say, presents criminals with a ready list of easy targets.
“That was the most asinine article I’ve ever seen,” said Walter T. Shaw, 65, a former burglar and jewel thief who the FBI blames for more than 3,000 break-ins that netted some $70 million in the 1960s and 1970s. “Having a list of who has a gun is like gold – why rob that house when you can hit the one next door, where there are no guns?
“What they did was insanity,” added Shaw, author of “License to Steal,” a book about his criminal career.
The map of gun owners’ homes also gives those crooks specifically interested in stealing guns a roadmap for their criminal enterprises.
After all, it is not legal, law-abiding gun owners, but criminals using stolen or illegal weapons that perpetrate crimes. And here the paper has given a ready-made list to those who might want to find guns that can’t be traced back to the criminals through legal records.
“That’s one of the first things we’d check out — guns are on the top of the list of what you want to steal,” another former thief told Fox News. “They can walk out with a shotgun and a couple of handguns and sell them on the street for $300 or $400 a pop. They can sell them to a gangbanger who ends up killing someone.”
Regardless of the danger the Journal News brought to its community, it has promised to try and print the names and addresses of even more legal gun owners.
The paper targeted nearby Putnam County but officials there have refused to release the information.
____________
“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.
Leave a Comment
If you would like to make a comment, please register to do so. I hate to do that but there are so many spam-bots out there that deleting spam comments would be a full time job if I were to just open it up for anyone without asking them to jump through a few hoops first.
You must be registered and logged in to post a comment. Anyone can register. No registrant's information is kept, used, or sold. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Social Networking
Help the Soldiers!
American Genius
Our Founding Ideas- The Declaration of Independence
- The Federalist Papers
- The U.S. Constitution
- Debates of 1787
- The Anti-Federalist Papers
- The Writing of John Locke
"Governments are instituted among men,deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776
Recently Written
Featured Sites
What THEY Say:
Foreign News In English
Illini Alliance
Blogroll
of Thinking
Political Parties
Contact Us
Email Publius' ForumArchives
Links
Other Blogs
MilBlogs
Religion
Gun Rights
Education
Separation of School
from State
Radio Hosts
| Blog: |
| Publius' Forum |
Topics: |
| Politics, News, Commentary |
