United Liberty

Last month, The Journal News, a New York-based paper, published a map showing the names and locations of all the gun owners in the local area. The map sparked immediate outcry, and justifiably so, from gun owners and pro-Second Amendment organizations because it both infringed upon their privacy and could lead to some dangerous incidents. Not only that, it treated gun owners as if they were on par with sex offenders.

It seems now that two criminals broke into a home that was on the list, specifically targeting the owner’s gun safe:

It’s important to note that the gun owner wasn’t home when the criminals broke into try to obtain these legally owned firearms. Police are now trying to see if there is a connection between the crime and the map.

While the initial reaction to the break-in is to hold The Journal News accountable, they are protected by the First Amendment, whether you like it or not. Not to mention that the information was already public record. However, those protections don’t mean that it was a good idea to make that information more widely known by specifically targeting law-abiding citizens. That’s shoddy journalism, to say the least.