Constitutionality of mapping

[Titan6]

Anyway back on track...

Making the map in of itself would not be a rights violation, although it would likely be an exercise in frustration more than anything. The government would either be in the position of violating rights or having a map that was not worth the paper it was written on.

Let us suppose the Governor of Oz decided to make a map showing where all the gunowners lived so that the flying monkeys could gather up all the lollipop kin that might make trouble when the time came. I have a house in the Emerald City and stay sometimes at Esmerelda's Ranch. If I keep most of my weapons at the ranch and Esmerelda does not own any boomsticks (not broomsticks... she has plenty of those) then they would have no way of knowing where the guns were without a search. Since there is no way I am letting the flying monkeys in my house without a warrant it is either violate my rights or have a bad map.

I move about every two years. Sometimes I move to other states, sometimes I move back to states I already lived in. Good luck tracking that. I can't even remember some of the places I have lived.

By the time this map was put together it would not be worth the digits. Remember we are talking about a government that can't even tell you within $10 billion how much money they spend each year. To track 300,000,000 guns and 80,000,000 gun owners is likely beyond their abilities.

One of the issues with the LAPD plan was that they needed to go into houses to see where people were living. That is clearly a violation of the 4th ammendment. If they wanted to find out where gun owners were living they would face similar problems.

 

[siglite]

By the time this map was put together it would not be worth the digits. Remember we are talking about a government that can't even tell you within $10 billion how much money they spend each year. To track 300,000,000 guns and 80,000,000 gun owners is likely beyond their abilities.

Don't underestimate the technical skill of contractors. Anything that's done right in government is done by contractors. Just ask Boeing. The private sector probably knows not only every location you've lived, but how many rolls of toilet paper you purchased for each home. Clearinghouses like Choicepoint maintain and manage truly terrifying amounts of information on each of us. I don't think the ineptitude of the fedgov would provide us the shelter you hope it would. They realize when they can't handle something, and outsource it, or bring in contractors to manage it.

 

[Titan6]

Don't underestimate the technical skill of contractors. Anything that's done right in government is done by contractors. Just ask Boeing. The private sector probably knows not only every location you've lived, but how many rolls of toilet paper you purchased for each home. Clearinghouses like Choicepoint maintain and manage truly terrifying amounts of information on each of us.

Okay, they can make the map accurate but-
- It will cost $1,000,000,000,000
- The government will "accidentaly" release all the information about where you store your arms and the combo to your safe on the world wide web
- All the data on the map will be processed in China. The Chinese will build a huge database of place to attack first. Lucky for us they will realize that the only places that we don't have guns are not worth living in and the places where people do have guns are to valuable to bomb.

 

[308win]

I move about every two years. Sometimes I move to other states, sometimes I move back to states I already lived in. Good luck tracking that. I can't even remember some of the places I have lived.

Get access to the credit or consumer databases and find out how much you either don't know or have forgotten about yourself. I also believe that Lexus/Nexus (or whatever it is called) has a database that is licensed to LE that contains a frightening amount of information about each of us.

 

[The Annoyed Man]

The company I work for looked into entering the variable data printing industry, which is also known as 1 to 1 marketing. Siglite is correct. The amount of data out there on each one of us is absolutely staggering, and the ability of marketing agencies to massage and augment that data to previously unheard of levels is equally staggering. For instance, if you are Ford dealership and you want to push minivan sales, it is a logical step to mine data for people with addresses within a range of zip codes near your dealership. However, you can also purchase a list of people with income levels between X and Y who can more easily afford your minivan. You then cross match the 2nd list to the first, and eliminate those records from the zip code list that do not have incomes between X and Y. But if you also pull data for a third list made up of expectant mothers, cross match it to your 2nd data list of people who earn between X and Y and who live within your zip code range, and eliminate all records for people that are not expectant mothers, you will now be mailing your piece only to people who live near by, earn enough to buy, and have or are expecting kids. Your printing and mailing costs have just gone way down, and your return on investment (ROI) in minivan sales will be orders of magnitude higher than it would have been if you had just done a generalized mailing off of the first list.

I know, I know. It's boring as hell. But if any old marketing agency with a few savvy data managers can pull that kind of stuff off, so can your government. Because it is not enough that government can access records of your firearm purchases, they can also access records of what caliber of ammunition you purchase and how much of it you purchase. Don't believe me? Just look at the sales receipt the next time you pay for ammunition with a ATM/Visa card. Each line item on that receipt also exists as a database record. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Personally, I made up my mind shortly after learning how all this works to ignore it.

 

[Autolycus]

Originally posted by Zundfolge: One could argue the "Right to Privacy" angle ... I mean if its good enough to allow you to murder your unborn children, it should be good enough to keep the Gendarmes from creating a "confiscation route map" (or worse publishing a "criminal shopping list map").

How do you murder something that is unborn?

 

[Jeff White]

Ok, that's it. I think we've answered the OPs question. We're not going to get into defining life. You guys know better then that. :banghead:

Jeff