You probably remember hearing about that liberal editor last year who decided to take it upon herself to publish the names and addresses of a number of gun owners? Just in case you do not, allow me to refresh your memory. Caryn McBride, the editor of the Rockland Journal News. Last year she decided to give the go-ahead for the publication of an interactive map on the newspaper’s website. The problem is that this interactive map actually had the names and home addresses of thousands of gun owners throughout Rockland County, New York. Granted this was all public information; the newspaper simpl walked in to the county clerk’s office, requested the information, and walked out with all the data.

McBride made the claim that she had every right to do this. Since the names and addresses were a matter of public record, she felt that this was legal and within her rights as an editor and reporter. So, once again we see that the personal privacy of citizens comes at the expense of the ‘right’ of the public who ‘need to know.’

As you can imagine, this incident caused quite a stir when the map was published. Remember that anyone could go onto the newspaper website, find the map and click around to find the actual names and addresses of gun owners. Not to mention the fact that these were all legal gun owners.

When the gun owners complained about this invasion of their personal privacy, the newspaper even said that not only was it going to publish the map, but that they would publish thousands more names and addresses. Before this could actually happen, though, the state legislature got involved and passed a law prohibiting county clerks from releasing the privte information of gun owners. Although, as the controversy brewed, most counties in the state made the decision on their own not to continue releasing this information to journalists.

I also found it interesting to see that the newspaper actually hired an armed security service for protection. McBride said that they received threats. So, the person who published the names and addresses of gun owners because she felt that it was so wrong and evil to have guns decided herself to hide behind a gun. How hypocritical is that?

Another thing that resulted from this controversy was that home invaders and thieves began to target the homes of these people. This one I find really interesting. How stupid would you have to be to literally target the home of someone that you know has guns? You would think that this would make you want to stay away, if anything. But, as it turned out, the information that the newspaper obtained was woefully outdated. In the end, the newspaper relented and took down the map.

Now it seems that McBride has gotten her reward for putting the lives of thousands of private citizens at risk. She was recently laid off by the Journal News CEO Janet Hasson. She was among 17 writers and 26 other staff members who were also let go. Apparently the paper has not seen much success since this incident.

It is good to see something that works out right once in a while. Of course, it is too bad that those gun owners had to suffer through these times, but glad to see that the community responded by not continuing to read or buy that rag and nice to see that another liberal newspaper is on the way out. As far as I’m concerned, this is the kind of response that needs to happen all over.