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| Yep, I'm a gun owner standing here with a loaded S&W .44 Magnum. I must ask," Do ya feel lucky punk? Well do ya?" |
Phoenix, AZ—I personally wrote no less that 14 bills to
legalize the carrying of concealed weapons in Arizona. There was one bill for every year until it
finally passed. I relentlessly lobbied
the Arizona Legislature along with Landis Aden from the Arizona State Rifle
Association. It was a long and
challenging battle.
I can remember the stiff opposition from even the Republican
leadership. The late Senator Jackie
Steiner emotionally warned me, “Your bill will bring shootouts to every
traffic accident in Arizona!” I quietly
informed the good Senator that Arizona law already allowed people to keep
loaded guns in their automobile glove compartments. Steiner vowed to do something about that but thankfully
never followed up on the threat.
I did not write the final bill that passed but it contained
90% of what I included in prior bills.
They left out just one important thing I always added. That was a measure to prevent the release of
permit information except to criminal justice agencies.
When the bill sans the data protection aspect was heard in
the Senate Judiciary Committee I quickly testified that any hit man, rapist or
burglar could access the data as a public record to prepare for a deadly
crime. The committee saw the light and
the final bill was amended to include the data protection and was passed and
became law.
As each state enacted Right to Carry legislation many of
them omitted the data protection and news reporters published this sensitive
personal data. Soon states took steps
to protect these databases for obvious reasons.
Now in a move to embarrass, enrage and endanger gun owners
the New York Journal published the entire gun owner database complete with a
map to their homes. Of course the data
could be accessed just as the Journal did, but this news organization simply
chose to enable and facilitate the criminal predators in the community. Most common thugs are simply not clever
enough to make a Freedom of Information request to government agencies.
Along the way the New York Journal also provided rapists,
burglars and killers with a method to determine if their intended victims were
unarmed and defenseless. This reckless
action by the New York Journal opens the door to serious unintended
consequences.
Politicians that hate gun rights like the idea of public
accessible gun registration databases.
They want to see all gun owners marked with a scarlet letter. However that scarlet letter tells the
cowardly criminals to move on. Those
without the scarlet letter have become the endangered ones.
