Thursday, January 17, 2013

Outing gun owners?

The Buffalo News has requested a list of all the gun owners in Erie County. County Clerk Chris Jacobs has denied this request, and I agree with him. I'm not a gun owner, but see this as an invasion of privacy. As long as owning guns is legal, it isn't anyone's business who owns one or who doesn't.

In it's defense, the News says it has no plans on publishing the names of the gun owners. How nice of them. To me, this is more a matter of privacy than it is safety. I'm sick of going to Walgreens and having to tell them my zip code before buying a bottle of shampoo. Leave me alone, damn it! Since when does purchasing something become a matter of public record? If people want to debate the use of assault military style weapons or 10 day waiting periods, I'm all for that debate. It's America. That's what we do. However, posting the names and addresses of private citizens against their will sounds like something out of the Cold War era.

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