REUTERS:
The decision by the Journal News, which serves
the suburbs just north of New York City in Westchester and Rockland
counties, to publish the identities was "deplorable" and "reckless,"
Rockland County legislator Frank Sparaco told a news conference, adding
that it "has posed a serious threat to the residents of Rockland."
Inmates
in local prisons have approached guards to say they know their home
addresses, Rockland County Sheriff Lou Falco told the news conference.
The
newspaper, which is owned by the Gannett Co, published a map with the
names and addresses of permit-holders in Westchester and Rockland
counties on December 24. It did so in the aftermath of the December 14
massacre of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in
Newtown, Connecticut.
The
publication created an uproar among gun enthusiasts, and the Journal
News felt threatened enough by the outcry over the map to hire a private
security company to protect its employees. Even so, the newspaper on
December 29 said it would publish even more names, this time for New
York's Putnam County.
New York Assemblyman William Magee told Reuters
he planned to re-introduce a bill originally proposed last February
that would make confidential the collective lists of gun permit-holders
in given areas except to law enforcement agencies. Members of the public
would still be able to request the personal information of individual
gun owners under the bill.
State gun-owner groups have called for an advertising boycott of the newspaper until it takes the map and identities off its website. (Continues)
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