{"id":337,"date":"2012-08-02T14:16:53","date_gmt":"2012-08-02T14:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grnc.org\/wp\/index.php\/2012\/08\/02\/grncs-media-warning-shot-found-its-mark\/"},"modified":"2012-08-02T14:16:53","modified_gmt":"2012-08-02T14:16:53","slug":"grncs-media-warning-shot-found-its-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grnc.org\/wp\/2012\/08\/grncs-media-warning-shot-found-its-mark\/","title":{"rendered":"GRNC\u2019s media \u2018warning shot\u2019 found its mark"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GRNC<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By F. Paul Valone<\/span>
July 31, 2012<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cHi, Jimbo. Good weekend? Staff meeting at ten. Hey, what\u2019s this I read in the newspaper about you buying a gun? You\u2019re not gonna \u2018go postal\u2019 on us, are you?\u201d
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Newspapers once printed lists of handgun permit applicants, who were sometimes treated as pariahs. Fortunately, as populations grew the practice faded.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>Now the media offers fresh fear-mongering: A search engine of North Carolina concealed handgun permit-holders by partial address. Run for your life! Your neighbor has guns!<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>For no journalistic reason yet named, WRAL reporter Mark Binker published it amid an innocuous piece on concealed carry applications. WRAL General Manager Steve Hammel insists street numbers aren\u2019t given, only street names. Under questioning, however, he admitted that for twenty-four hours, it revealed full<\/em><\/strong> addresses. It still reveals apartment numbers and, on streets with few houses, helps identify gun owners.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>Why does anyone even need this information? The only people subjected to similar treatment are sex offenders, to protect against predation. Does WRAL consider permit-holders dangerous?<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>Grass Roots North Carolina didn\u2019t want this battle, but scores of emails from outraged members \u2013 some with satellite photos showing theirs\u2019 as the sole houses on roads identified \u2013 convinced us to act.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>When contacted, Hammel insisted WRAL only divulged public information, ignoring that such data is otherwise available only by request from law enforcement officials, not by address-searchable Internet database. Moreover, Binker was the second reporter to recently abuse concealed handgun permit records. Although WRAL didn\u2019t quite<\/em><\/strong> release full addresses, the next media outlet probably would.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>So when negotiations failed, GRNC decided to demonstrate that unlike decades past, when media could \u201cout\u201d gun owners with impunity, thanks to the Internet, nobody monopolizes information. We had supporters tell WRAL advertisers to withdraw ads. The first target, an auto dealer, complied. Then we linked Internet information about the Binkers \u2013 all public information, most published by Binker himself. Like WRAL, we didn\u2019t publish his full address even though, unlike the permit-holder list, it\u2019s available on the Internet. Knowing people were upset, we took precautions, admonishing them to treat WRAL representatives civilly.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>Regarding \u201cpoor Mark Binker,\u201d when 399,2681<\/sup> citizens applied for concealed handgun permits, most didn\u2019t consider their personal information game for journalistic fishing expeditions. Binker, by contrast, made willful actions for which he should have anticipated consequences.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>Judging by media squealing, our warning shot found its mark. Alarmed journalists even sputtered that gun rights activists should be proud<\/em><\/strong> to be \u201coutted.\u201d Ignoring, momentarily, that domestic violence victims getting permits to protect against abusers2<\/sup>, for example, are not \u201cgun rights activists,\u201d I don\u2019t discuss my guns for the same reason I carry concealed: Tactical advantage. If attacked, I don\u2019t want the perp to know I\u2019m armed until his knowledge is moot.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>To analyze permits, media databases should be searchable only by five-digit zip code. GRNC now calls on Hammel to serve viewers by changing WRAL\u2019s database to that format.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>Gun owners support GRNC. Since the alert I\u2019ve received eight negative comments and signed up fifty-nine new members. Only strong action could convince reporters that camouflaging misbehavior behind public information carries a penalty, and that thanks to the Internet, we all<\/em><\/strong> live in \u201cglass houses.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>Footnotes:<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/strong>1. North Carolina Concealed Handgun Permit Statistics by County, 12\/1\/1995 thru 6\/30\/2011, <\/span>http:\/\/www.ncdoj.gov\/CHPStats.aspx<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

2. Drafted and passed by Grass Roots North Carolina in 2005, House Bill 1311, the \u201cDomestic Violence Victims Empowerment Act,\u201d requires courts to advise victims who apply for \u201c50B\u201d protective orders of their right to apply for concealed handgun permits. Most certainly, these victims would not be \u201cproud\u201d to have their information revealed, especially to the abuser against whom they just filed a restraining order.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By F. Paul ValoneJuly 31, 2012 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cHi, Jimbo. Good weekend? Staff meeting at ten. Hey, what\u2019s this I read in the newspaper about … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pauls-blog","resize-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grnc.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grnc.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grnc.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grnc.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grnc.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/grnc.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grnc.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grnc.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grnc.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grnc.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}