Revealing gun ownership online

I think that pictures have to be contextual.

I recall some controversy of a teacher who was fired for putting a picture up on Facebook where she pointed a gun at the camera.

I don't have a Facebook account and I don't tend to take pictures of me posing with guns. I have taken pictures of me and my skeet shooting buddies shooting clays and smoking cigars. But usually we are wearing polo shirts and half vests and have pretty over-unders. We look like we could have walked out of a Beretta catalog.

My company's president is a major contributor to the state Democratic party. He was also once a staffer for NJ's last democratic governor who as everybody knows, was no friend to gun owners. People at work know I shoot skeet. I've never hidden it, but I don't necessarily advertise when I first meet somebody.

I've been to job interviews where people have asked me if I have hobbies. I've mentioned skeet shooting, and I've never gotten looks of disgust. I think if you are taking pictures of a day at the range, and display it in the context of a sport, you are fine.

Do not remember which one (Twitter or Facebook) but they have loss 6 million accounts in the last few months as people become aware that anything they post is the property of the entity and you can never get rid of it.....hummmmm wasn't there a congressman who would have deleted everything recently if he could have or not sent pics over the net? I think the sights are great for some and those who participate seem to enjoy their time and contacts around the world with great enthusiasm..To each his/her own.

My point is, Sipernet is "Secure" and can be easily violated

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The SIPR can't necessarily be easily violated, the breech was as much of an issue of OPSEC as it was COMSEC, if not more.

The problem with Facebook is it can let potential thieves know what you have and when you are not home.

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That is exactly why I exclude somethings from social networking sites. Posting a couple pics might not be an issue, but I probably wouldn't broadcast that I had a collection.

parents are paranoid. Mine did the same thing with me shooting a .22 on my facebook page. Post them if you want...

My point is, Sipernet is "Secure" and can be easily violated, what chance does a public networking site like Facebook have of being "Secure"?

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Lots, actually. Facebook is a multi-billion dollar business with an astronomical cash flow. They're one of the most lucrative companies in the world and massive leaks of users' data would be very bad for business. I assure you, they are doing something to keep their networks secure.

The Military Sipernet is MUCH more secure than Facebook.

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what does security matter with facebook? people don't enter credit card or s.s. number info.

what's the most a hacker can get? your name and picture? big deal. type your name into Google, chances are you'll find something about yourself online.


maybe the companies that have facebook pages on there have sensitive info, but the large majority of regular users have nothing worth stealing.

You people have guns???? And I thought this was a group of nice people. LOL "Don't got no stinkin gunz" so nothing to take a pic of.

the only thing that would prevent me from posting gun pics on FB would be people knowing what i have and making me a target for burglary....but i only own two firearms currently, and only one of them is pictured on facebook, and my profile is friends only...so im not overly worried.

Potential employers will sometimes check social networking sites.

It's a good idea to keep party pictures or other things a potential employer might find objectionable tucked away out of public view.

Actually ANYTHING you put on the internet is retrievable...
EVEN say...
DEEP SIXED threads from a place call The High Road...

All you have to do is under stand Google archives and how servers work. (that two ways to retrieve them BTW)

The problem with the internet is things change so quickly. What we might consider reasonable precautions years or even months ago are proving to be inadequate. It has gotten to a point where you may as well assume the worst. Assume people will be able to access your information and anything you post. Same with account numbers for financial matters. And if the government has it, it is gone. Same with corporations. How often do the big credit card companies say oops, we just lost a million accounts. The Sipernet leaks were not an anomaly, they were one in a continuing pattern of security breakdowns. If you put something out there it will be everywhere. Just don't act surprised when it becomes accessable to all.

That's an excellent question. I wondered about peoples' various reactions.
Although my wife and I have no interest in having a Facebook page, my son has one.

Several days ago we took some old rifles to shoot.
He had me video his shooting with his fancy phone. My wife discovered the video on his page.

1) Could this easily cost somebody a job during the later interview/post-interview process etc?
He wants to be in sports media, and some jobs are with newspapers etc.

Does this sometimes invite a burglary as anyone can look up an address?
Anybody wanting to burglarize might guess who owns the rifles.

2) Are burglaries taking place because of such items displayed on Facebook?

i am an IT professional and i don't find facebook or twitter to be very useful to me. I have other comm programs that allow better comms when i need it.
I have accounts on both, but I waste all my time of gun sites so i don't mess with FB or tweets much.

If you can see a picture on the Web you can copy it one way or another. I figure anything I post anywhere is up for grabs no matter what permissions I set on it. Facebook has been hacked more than once. People leave computers and smartphones unlocked and walk away from them all of the time. Friends do dumb things every once in a while. Nothing to loose sleep over but a good thing to keep in mind.

Facebook is only one of the sites that have proven more than once that they will not keep your private information private. Other sites and credit card companies have been hacked. I say never put anything on line that you don't want the world to see at any time now or down the road.

We don't have private FB accounts, but the biz has one. We also don't advertise when we're going to be out of town. Actually, given today's economy, I figure we won't be taking a vacation for at least 10 years...

I don't do facebook,twitter or anything else (present company excepted,of course). If you decide to post all your crap on these social diseases (sorry sites) then,well, I guess you get what you ask for.
A friend was at my house the other day, and showed me that they could hack facebook in under a minute from any computer with no special software. Left some insulting stuff on a companys page.

It may seem safe that only your friends can view your FB page but what about your wife's nephew with the drug problem that you don't know about?

Or maybe one of your friends from work leaves his FB page open and one of his son's friends is looking at your FB pics and sees all your nice guns?

You never know.

Denying yourself a useful tool because you're scared of it seems ironic.

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Exactly! Face Book has replaced the telephone and letters for communication between me and my family,my classmates,fellow church members and friends of all descriptions. It is my primary source for local news. I also work out gun trades via FB accounts. If you type in your mailing address you can get a very nice aerial view of your house(no FB account needed).

I never wanted or had a facebook account.

I have a facebook account but I don't put much on it. A few family and friend pics, a few business contacts is it. I wouldn't put my house, address or guns on there. Wouldn't post my income either, or vacation plans. Anything online becomes public domain. Just my .02.

I saw earlier today on another forum a thread about a man who took a CHL course and was "friended" by a fellow classmate, and even went shooting with the guy. The "friend" found out when this man would be at work, and by looking at some of his FB pics was able to figure out the guy's house number, and one day stopped by and stole 4 handguns. So, there is always a danger when publically posting gun pics to FB. Me, I don't do it.

Some people don't use FB for that very reason.

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Friendly - that is why I'm not on FB!
They keep changing things SOOO frequently, you never know WHAT they will change next. Look at this fiasco over "face recognition".

Along these lines:


http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=264866&highlight=$500

Someone surmised that it was possible to locate a collector's physical address off the net.

A person who knows their way around a computer can back track from your post on here and find out where the computer you typed your response in this thread is located.

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Texasrifleman said,

No they can't.
Not without getting help from your ISP.
The only way that can happen is if you own a registered IP address which very few folks do.

If that's true, find someone to tell you who I am and where I am, using these tricks. There's $500 bucks in it for you.

I need to see the steps documented and where the info came from.

500 cash.

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A poster named Spaknaveli actually located Texasrifleman.

Texasrifleman then said,

Spaknaveli should scare you all.

Though he did not use the system described above, locating the posting PC by "back tracking", he did indeed track me down and even called my house. He didn't find the location of the PC since I am not at home, I am using a Verizon wireless EVDO card but that's nitpicky and the end result is the same. I saw the missed call because Vonage emails me when I get a call.

The detractors (I'm formerly one) should be scared.

I appreciate him doing that, it was indeed a real eye opener.

Since I invited it I'm certainly not mad or anything, indeed quite the opposite.

Knowing how it was done will allow me to take some steps, but it's very impressive.

If he wants I will buy him a Molon Labe had from Correia as thanks.

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Then there was a beef about the $500. Texas wasn't going to pay, so he ended up paying half that.