About a week after other county officials denied a newspaper's request for the names and address of gun permit holders, Putnam District Attorney Adam B. Levy issued this statement:
Levy announced his opposition to the release of the names and addresses of licensed gun owners in Putnam County, as was requested by The Journal News in their Freedom of Information Request (F.O.I.L.).
“This is a public safety issue—not a gun issue” said DA Levy, Putnam County’s chief law enforcement officer. “The disclosure of the names and residential addresses of licensed permit holders endangers the safety and well-being of those citizens along with their neighbors.”
DA Levy continued, “Whether you’re a vetted, licensed gun owner or the neighbor of one, the last thing you want is for that information to end up in the hands of a criminal. My goal is to keep lawfully purchased guns out of the hands of those criminals. To release the information as requested by The Journal News would put all our citizens at risk.”
“Putnam County is one of the safest counties in New York to live and raise a family. To disclose the information so it’s available to people with criminal intentions is unacceptable and irresponsible” said DA Levy.
DA Levy supports the decision by Putnam County Clerk Dennis Sant and County Executive MaryEllen Odell to deny The Journal News FOIL request.
Check out the following information for more on the situation.
- Click here for a release that details officials' positions.
- Click here for a story about the situation and the Freedom of Information Law—as well as the process that follows when a request is denied.
- Click here for a story about threats The Journal News received after posting maps revealing folks in Rockland and Westchester who carry gun permits.
- Click here for video of a press conference with officials explaining the denial.
- State Sen. Greg Ball is pushing a bill that would "prohibit the public disclosure of information in an application for a pistol license with exceptions for prosecutors and police conducting an active investigation." The bill, he said, "would protect lawful gun owners from being targeted by thieves for firearm burglaries and eliminate a database criminals could use to extort their identity-theft victims."
The government acknowledges in USDOJ National Gang Threat Assessment 2011, see pg 14, chart #8 for that massive number of violent crimes committed in the US each year committed by gang members. http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/2011-national-gang-threat-assessment For several decades, studies have been conducted on crime and causalities by various bodies including major universities, criminologists and even the U.S. Department of Justice. These studies have found that approximately 80% of all crime is committed by 20% of all criminals. Some of the studies have provided slightly different numbers but all of them have found that a small group of criminals commit a vastly disproportionate number of crimes than their peers.(Wolfgang et al ., 1972; Petersilia et al ., 1978; Williams, 1979; Chaiken and Chaiken, 1982; Greenwood with Abrahamse, 1982, and Martin and Sherman,1986). Hence add in the career criminals. cont
Shall we review police studies in Chicago and NYC where between 76-80% of those involved in shootings, both shooter and injured were both involved in criminal activity at the time of the incident. www.popcenter.org/problems/drive_by_shooting/PDFs/Block_and_Block_1993.pdf, www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/public_information/2007_firearms_discharge_report.pdf, www.nyclu.org/files/nypd_firearms_report_102207.pdf Yeah, review of all the govt. data above shows over 92% of all killings by illegal use of a firearm are committed by career criminals, gang members, and suiciders. A sane person would normally address the largest problem first don’t you agree? Lets continue this review by acknowledging how many of the existing gun control laws actually apply to the bad guys. http://supreme.justia.com/us/390/85/ Haynes vs. U.S. 390 U.S. 85 1968 where the US Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in favor of Haynes that any law requiring a felon to self incriminate themselves and violate their 5th amendment rights was not enforceable as a charge for prosecution. Hence criminals don't have to follow 85% of the existing 22,417 gun control laws that do so, e.g. your stolen weapons, registrations, etc.... Would you care to suggest that the 5th amendment be repealed, no, don’t think you would!
Like the BATF for refusing to prosecute more than 1% of the 1.83 mil felons, others, and crazies rejected by the background check since 1994. http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/html/bcft/2008/bcft08st.pdf USDOJ Background Check & Firearm Transfer report 2008 Like the BATF for refusing to catch ANY of those lying on their 4473 forms (Cho, Loughner & Holmes were crazy, they lied) or using fake identifications. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/03/21/national/main280557.shtml General Accounting Office study Like the BATF for refusing to do anything about the 95% of felons who don’t even attempt to buy from a licensed source to begin with. http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=940 DOJ Firearms use by Offenders Nov 2001 Like the BATF for refusing to allow civilians access to use the NICS background check for private sales as only licensed dealers are allowed.
http://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/PUBLAW/HTML/PUBLAW/0-0-0-38245.html The real question and failure, is what have the states actually funded or resourced to do so? http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/nics/nics Going to the actual website, we see as of July 2012, there are only 1.7 mil records of people who by due process have lost their 2A rights for being severely mentally ill. Yet mental health experts agree that on avg. over 23.15 mil US adults (50% of current 2.7 mil prisoners) are severely mentally ill. So is that the 80 mil law abiding gun owners fault, or the politicians, sucker question I know!
Violent Encounters – A study of Felonious Assaults on our nations law enforcement officers USDOJ, FBI, National Institute of Justice August 2006 http://www.scribd.com/doc/49014330/Violent-Encounters-A-Study-of-Felonious-Assaults-on-Our-Nation-s-Law-Enforcement-Officers-by-DOJ You should read the National Sciences Foundation report from 2004 on gun control laws, a study that was formed by the anti gun Clinton Administration so just like the Ludgwig & Cooke study noted below, doesn't prove any causality theory, much less any effect of gun control laws on violent crime. An Updated Assessment of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban: Impacts on Gun Markets and Gun Violence, 1994-2003, National Institute of Justice, June 2004 http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/204431.pdf E.G. Government admits the ban didnt do didley squat Firearm Violence, a critical Review" 2004 http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10881&page=R2 Says same thing!
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10shrtbl08.xls 2010 FBI UCR database shows 1.25 mil violent crimes reported (4 mil not reported USDOJ National Victimization report), 322,691 involved a firearm, 14,748 murders, 358 by illegal use of any type of rifle, 162 by use of a semi-auto rifle banned because they look evil. (firearms were used in 67.5 percent of the Nation’s murders 14,748 = 9,955, 41.4 percent of 367,832 robberies =152,282, and 20.6 percent of aggravated assaults 778,901 =160,453.) All while in 2010 FBI UCR, we see deaths committed by illegal use of hands, fists, feet, blunt objects and knives accounted over 3,259 deaths, each by themselves accounting for far more deaths than the anti’s mythical boogeyman, the semi-auto rifle banned because they look evil. The anti’s really should get going on registering and banning hands, fist, feet, all type of blunt objects and all knives as clearly they are a more serious threat in the real world. Hey make sure to ban clenching ones fist or flipping the bird as that is indeed brandishing of a lethal weapon!
It will be looked at as a time study, we who set manufacturing processes up do lots of these studies to accurately predict labor, material usages, predictions and savings. Response times by the police range from 2 minutes at Aurora was due to them being lucky enough to be near, most times 10 to 12 minutes from first call. Witnesses identified shots were fired at SHES 9:30 am when announcements were being made. The first call was 9:35:44 to police dispatch. In Sandy Hook, the first police officer arrived on site at 9:38:38! 9:40:24 Last shots heard–Lanza killing himself! 9:44:29 1st responder in the building identifies Vice Principal near the office (shot in foot) Time line: Adam Lanza tried to open a locked door, couldn’t, so he shot the glass out to gain entry upon which time the principal and school psychiatrist & vice principal came from the office and confronted Lanza who then killed two and wounded one. Total elapsed time, approximately 1 minute. Then Lanza walked down the hallway to the 1st kinder-garden classroom about 20 ft away, max time to do so, 15 seconds, where he killed 1 teacher & 14 students. Lanza then walked across the hall 25 ft away, max time 15 seconds. Where upon he killed another teacher and 6 students. CONT
Since we know that he fired approx 79 rounds, using 30 round magazines, that is 2 magazine changes x 3.0 seconds = 6 seconds. Cyclic rate for the semi-auto rifle/pistol is 60 rounds per minute so 1 shot for every pull of the trigger per second = 79 seconds. Total times Office killing 1min=60secs Hallway walk to 1st room = 15 seconds Hallway walk to 2nd room = 15 seconds Shootings =79 seconds Reloads = 6 seconds 175 seconds total = 2.917 minutes Now if Lanza had been limited to 10 round magazines as antis claim would limit the ease of killing, at 3 seconds reloads, needs 8 magazines = 7 reloads x 3 seconds = 21 seconds. That is an additional 12 seconds to the total = 3.037 minutes total. Since the time from the first shooting to the time the police entered the building and approached the shooter was right at 8.5 minutes. Then when the1st responder was working toward Lanza’s location he pulled a pistol and shot himself at 9:40:24am. 10 Minutes after Lanza began his attack he shot himself, explain again how the 10 round magazines would have made a difference when there was 12.963 minutes of spare time for the shooter to screw up and take his time? Reality is, limiting a shooter to 10 round magazines doesn’t prevent ANYTHING and you cant prove different!
I think that someone who knows Bob should just volunteer to post his personal information on-line, like this idiot below who reposted the information because he could! John Cook – john@gawker.com Wife: Allison Benedikt (Employment: Previous: The Village Voice Film Editor) (she now does some work for Slate) – 2 kids with 1 on the way son – born in 2008 (4 yrs old) Married on October 25th 2003 in San Francisco (courthouse wedding) Oh look, a tell all from Mrs Benedikt. Home (718) 369-8243 528 16th St Brooklyn, NY 11215-5912 Poor Max Brantley of The Arkansas Times in 2008 posted such a list. Two days later a gun owner posted Max's personal, publicly available info on a billboard in the seedy part of town (Little Rock). Max interview the next day was that of a blustering bully complaining how he was being forced to eat the cake he had served so snootily the days before!
There are consequences to every action and that idiot has children. Here is to hoping that a law is made that anyone who does such an act of publicly outing such law abiding people again, is turned over to the family of anyone harmed because said information led their attacker to them, to have the exact same injuries and tool used to harm the victim, upon the person who published said data!
SO a house which was in the data base in Westchester was burglarized...and they were looking for guns...so now think about what I said in my previous post...