Patch Chatter

Should Maps of Local Gun Owners Be Public?

A newspaper's map with names and addresses of handgun permit holders in New York state has sparked controversy. We want to hear your thoughts.

In late December, about two weeks after the Newtown school shootings in Connecticut, Patch received a request from a Kenilworth resident to publish a map of gun owners in Cook and Lake counties.  The reader referred to a map, which included the names and addresses of handgun permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties, N.Y. The Journal News created the map using publically available data and said it was providing a public service by publishing the information. But not everyone agreed. Facebook user Mike Pandolfo was quoted in the New York Times as saying: “Now everyone knows where the LEGAL GUNS are kept, a valuable piece of information for criminals. Why don't you do something helpful, like trying to find out where the ILLEGAL …

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Antonia Duhe

12:23 am on Wednesday, April 10, 2013

I am suggesting we have a liberal, irresponsible press who are using the power of the pen to intimidate gun owners to comply with the constitution-killing liberal Ideology.   more ›

Poll: Are Gun Laws Tough Enough?

A gunman shot and killed 26 people including 20 children in a shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

A gunman opened fire this week at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. killing 26 people including 20 children. Although gun enthusiasts bristle at the idea that gun control should be part of any discussion in the wake of such a tragedy, the fact is guns were the means by which this horrific act was committed. Since 1982 most mass shootings have been done with weapons that were obtained legally, Mother Jones reported. A vast array of weapons were used, but semi-automatic handguns were involved most often. The magazine's report found that on average there were two mass shootings a year since 1982, however, 24 of the 61 cases it examined happened since 2006. The number of guns owned in the U.S. rose from 200 million to 300 million between …

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