Ethical? Interactive map of gun permit holders

What's the location of his mistress have to do with anything?

 

This got me thinking about something else......

What would you do if managers at your shop wanted to publish something like this (assuming you strongly opposed the idea)?

For the record, I was NOT working at the paper I mentioned when the names and addresses of sex offenders were published. My last editor was such a dick that he never seemed to care what anyone else's opinion about anything was.

Gosh, I would hate to be in that position.

 

I think this is important. To be clear: I don't want to get into a pro-gun/anti-gun debate; I won't share my personal opinion on the issue. But I will say that I'm a native Texan, and though I don't live there now, I grew up in an environment where guns were an everyday, common thing. When you walked into stores, people had holsters in their belts. When I went to friends' houses in middle school, their parents had gun cabinets. On New Year's Eve, the popping you heard outside wasn't fireworks - it was your neighbors shooting off their shotguns, a Texas tradition on New Years.

My point is this - maybe JRoyal is right. I think maps like this are important... not to scare people into thinking "oh no, my neighbor has a gun"... but to show people that regular, everyday, good people do own guns. They're in your neighborhood. And guess what... you're safe. Guns aren't inherently bad. And by saying this map "criminalizes" people is playing right into the hands of people who say that they are. I see this map, as others like it, as tools to show people that gun ownership is not a bad thing. It's an essential part of American life, and it happens in your neighborhood.

And please don't anyone equate this to a sex offender registry. I personally do not own a gun - but please don't say that owning a gun and doing whatever the hell people do to get on the sex offender registry are comparable acts. One is not a crime, it's a constitutional right. The other is vile and disgusting. Apples and oranges.

Sorry for the rant - but I'm fine with the map. I hope people see this the right way... guns are not things to be feared.

 

Honest question, but how old are you? I've been here my entire life and I have never seen such a thing.

 

You badly missed the point on this.

I brought up the sex offender registry comparison because this looks exactly like the online sex offender registries. The fact that gun owners and sex offenders are apples and oranges is exactly my point -- and I'm pretty damn anti-gun. They have set up a listing of gun owners that looks very much like the listings of sex offenders. I am uncomfortable with that.

 

My bad, PC, I gotcha now. You make a good point - I just misunderstood it.

Lieslntx, I grew up pretty rural. Spent a lot of time in the southern tip of Ennis county, then moved down to the Johnson City area near the river. Never lived in a big city growing up. But then, that's all I've done since I got out of college. I understand, though, that it's a different debate in a major city. Especially when that major city is New York.

Anyway, I just want to make the point that gun owners aren't inherently bad people, and I think the educated eye doesn't see this map as "pointing out criminals". Maybe I'm wrong about that, maybe that's just how I see it, but I would hope others see that too.

 

What are the odds Mark2010 would be against sex offender registries?

 

Meanwhile, a use of raw data on a similar-but-different part of this that I think is far more well-done. Slate's count of all the gun-related deaths (that one could realistically confirm) since the Newtown shootings.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2012/12/gun_death_tally_every_american_gun_death_since_newtown_sandy_hook_shooting.html

I found this quite powerful. I hope they keep tracking this, because if nothing else I think reporting like this provides perspective on violent crime that we don't get enough of when the focus is just on isolated incidents.

 

I'm against PUBLISHING sex offender registries for just anyone to access.

 

Not to continue the threadjack, but you don't like it when they are published in a newspaper or other publication, or you don't like that they are available to the public online? In my experience, it's easier to access the maps online through any of the state sex offender websites than it is to muddle through an online publication to find it.

As the father of a 13-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter, I think it's great that I can click online (and I check regularly) and see if I have a neighbor who is a registered sex offender who raped a co-ed in college or a 10-year-old boy a couple years back.

And while I'm not trying to get into questions that may be personal, but why don't you think the public should be entitled to that kind of information?

 

I would love to see similar sites listing/mapping those who have DUI convictions.

 

Had the map been published with your viewpoint in mind, I could agree with you. But that's not why this map was published. The people who see this map are more likely to read it as "OMG! Guns are in my neighborhood!!!!! I'm in danger!!!!"