Medford Oregon Newpaper Sues To Get Names Of Gun Owners

[AirplaneDoc]

I would recomend starting a campaign to cancel newspaper subscriptions and then get local business to boycott advertising in the local paper. I dn't subscribe to a newspaper, I have no pets so no need to have a daily dog toy or litter boxliner brought to th house, but if I did and my name appeared in one as a CCW holder, I would be contacting every other person on the list to make sure that they cancelled their subscription, and would also make sure that any local business that advertised in the paper was also aware of the loss of subscribers, and they inturn should cancel their advertising with them.

Can't believe I am saying this but, hurray for the local sherriff

 

[mikec]

AirplaneDoc, this tactic can be successful however since the parent company is a national publisher, see my earlier post, others can help. If every gun owner checks who owns their "local" paper, most aren't local, we can hurt a company like this.

 

[RocketMan]

I was contacted by Bruce Starr, an Oregon state Senator, regarding my correspondence advocating making this CCW list private in Oregon and out of reach of newspapers such as this that are trying to create a story instead of report one. He said he is planning on bringing this up in 2009. Not sure why it would wait that long, but I don't navigate the .gov procedural quagmire very well.

Jeepmor,

The Oregon legislature meets only every other year. I believe the next time they meet is 2009.

 

[lefteye]

Without commenting on whether I think the paper's story is "newsworthy," I have to ask why gun owners who will fight to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights seemed outraged by reporters and editors fighting to exercise their 1st Amendment rights. Have I missed something?

Publishing the information would be an exercise of 1st Amendment rights. Obtaining the information is not an exercise of 1st Amendment rights. If it was a 1st Amendment right to obtain any information in the possession of a government entity, then we all have a right to all information in the possession of the executive branch of the U.S. govenrment, e.g., classified information at the Pentagon, the CIA, the FBI, etc. Gun owners do not (at least this gun owner does not) seek to deny anyone there right to express their anti-gun opinions.

 

[M14/11B]

Maybe we should publish all the personal information of these "journalists", such as their home addresses, tax bills etc., because this is all public information in gov't. databases that we all paid for as taxpayers. It is our right as much as their right to this info.

 

[hnk45acp]

Any new info on this? It is a few months old

 

[TylerDurden]

The latest?

Not sure off hand. I think it is still tied up legally.

I just got mine a couple of days ago.

It is frustrating.

Criminals around here are savvy. All they need is a name and access to a hospital computer. Look up the name and bam, "I guess I won't break into his house afterall." I say this because I worked with someone who read the obituaries, found out when the funeral was, got in the hospital record, robbed the house during the funeral. Finally got caught. Earned a one way eventual ticket to hell, in my mind. Anyway, we need to watch out for our information.

Mail Tribune can kiss my a**. As mentioned earlier, they are just wanting to scare people into not getting a CCW and to spread liberal propoganda. I don't even go to their website anymore.

Sheriff Mike Winters deserves credit and exposure for his support.

Is there any other Highroad members from the Medford area? What's up with this? What is the latest?

TD
Medford Area

 

[takhtakaal]

This is the last a friend from Medford (hey, I gots connections!) could find:

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080209/NEWS/802090310

Sheriff testifies he'll work to keep weapon carriers private

Mail Tribune asserts names are public record and papers they sign state as much


By Anita Burke
Mail Tribune
February 09, 2008

Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters testified Friday in a lawsuit brought by the Mail Tribune that he will fight to keep the names of people with concealed handgun licenses private. That's despite the paper's assertion that the information is public record and was identified to permit holders as such.

"It's up to me to secure their information and records," Winters said.

The Mail Tribune, invoking the state's public records law, had asked for a list of license holders in August as part of an investigation into news that a South Medford High School teacher had such a permit and wanted to carry her gun at school. Teacher Shirley Katz sued the Medford School District over a policy prohibiting employees from taking weapons on campus, then appealed when the policy was found valid.

 

[TylerDurden]

See!

This is what is irritating:

Why is it relevant? Why do they need a list of names for their story?

Ok, I am done. For now.

 

[tmajors]

Ask Matt Westerhold or Chauncey Alcorn how they liked all their personal information coming out after they published a CCW list in the Sandusky Register.

 

[TylerDurden]

Hmmm...

Interesting...

 

[BAT1]

Kudos for Sheriff Mike Winters! Simple as this: Shall not be infringed. We need to make a domestic enemy data bank for all to see and reverse the heat.

 

[Wade-0]

Maybe someone should go digging into Bob Hunter's past. Then he could join his buddy Bolsinger in the local headlines:

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080206/NEWS/802060325/-1/COMM

(The Ashland Daily Tidings is a sister publication of the Medford Mail Tribune)

 

[TylerDurden]

I am listening...

Brilliant!

I live in Talent. Between this and the eminent B.S. going on between the Imigrant Hills mansions-Ashland-lease-Gun Club thing I am getting a little sense of activism.

Making soap gets old after a while.

I already told a kid that I wasn't intereseted in a subscription to the Mail Tribune for this very reason. He looked shady at 8:30 at night anyway.

-TD

 

[jakk280rem]

i heard about shirley katz here in salem, but i didnt hear that the paper wanted to publish personal info of ccw holders. i am deffinetly interested in an update when available.

 

[bdickens]

Without commenting on whether I think the paper's story is "newsworthy," I have to ask why gun owners who will fight to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights seemed outraged by reporters and editors fighting to exercise their 1st Amendment rights. Have I missed something?

Yes, you did miss something. Publishing sensitive personal information about people is a serious invasion of their privacy and has nothing to do with freedom of the press.

 

[Wade-0]

Sorry to say, I saw on the news a week or so back that the paper won their case, and the court ordered the sheriff's office to hand over the list. I'll see if I can find anything online to post a link.

EDIT: Here's the official court opinion:
http://www.ojd.state.or.us/jac/documents/MailTribunevsSheriffWinters.pdf

 

[Ash]

Yeah, what if the press decides to sue over medical records.

Ash

 

[Rem700]

Doesnt it say the application is a matter of public record?
Doesnt say anything about the permit itself.

 

[alexanderplatz]

Without commenting on whether I think the paper's story is "newsworthy," I have to ask why gun owners who will fight to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights seemed outraged by reporters and editors fighting to exercise their 1st Amendment rights. Have I missed something?

Additionally I would add that the first amendment does not say anything about the collecting of information. If I already know that my neighbor Bob likes to dress in women's clothing, I can say so if I choose to. But that doesn't mean I can go rifle through his personal effects just to confirm a suspicion.

 

[hnk45acp]

I'm not surprised by the court opinion but there's a big difference in a private citizen filing a FOIA request for the list and a newspaper publishing the entire list addresses and all.
If the paper wants to use the info for data, fine but when they start printing names and addresses is when they need to be stopped

 

[Wade-0]

I got the impression that they would have considered it more seriously if ANY of the permit holders had filed a complaint about their information being released. Apparently no one did.

 

[RockRifle]

Recourse to secure our privacy?

Obviously State Law had a hole you could drive a truck through... (they did!)... Keep the updates coming!

Contact your State Senators, Representatives, and local leadership to offer support to future legislation to curb this action. The County Sheriff is the keeper of the records, support your local sheriff!

Beyond that future hope, is there anything we can do to change our individual status as "part of the public record" NOW? Do all CCL's in the state need to converge on the Medford courthouse to file for exemption?

legal advice please...

 

[230RN]

I suspect the next time this comes up with some hotshot journalist, all we have to do is send him the Buckeye link a previous poster provided when the Sandusky Register tried the same thing:

FROM:

http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/article3823.html


Here's one of the scary parts...

What is the harm in publishing lists of concealed handgun license holders?
Submitted by buckeyefirearms on Thu, 06/28/2007 - 18:06. BFA News
By Ken Hanson

(snip)

So, as a service to our readers, we have prepared an example by using Sandusky Register Editor Matt H. Westerhold. We have selected him simply because the paper has pointed to him as the one "responsible" for the decision to publish the lists.

(snip)


It is very easy to determine that Mr. Westerhold has gone to pretty significant steps to insure that his own personal information is not public.

(snip)


More seriously, for the hardcore bad guy, these public records (per the Dissolution settlement) show that Matt has a pre-teen child who resides with his ex-wife. Reviewing the child support worksheet and the financial affidavits, we see that no tuition or school payments are listed, so it is a relatively high percentage bet that the child is a public school student. We see from the worksheet that mom has custody, so the child almost certainly is the residential parent for school purposes. From further public records, we see the marriage license from Mr. Westerhold’s ex-wife a year after the dissolution, and we already knew her date of birth, social security number and recent employer from the Dissolution. With very little effort we find ex-wife’s residence and now are relatively sure of which public school his pre-teen child goes to simply by checking the auditor’s maps for this residence for school districts. A check of the school website will show us the bus schedule for that particular school and that street or address, so we will almost certainly, with little effort, know which bus the child rides and what time it picks up/drops off. Further, most public libraries keep copies of the local school yearbooks in the reference section. Even if that is not the case, it is going to be fairly easy to get the yearbook and probably get a picture of the child for identification purposes.

Chilling, isn’t it?

(snip)

Attorney Ken Hanson is Buckeye Firearms Association Legislative Chair and author of The Ohio Guide to Firearm Laws.

Maybe that will do the trick.

 

[Wade-0]

They haven't published the list... yet. The editor said he wouldn't, that he justed wanted to prove a point. Hopefully he's already been convinced that it would be a bad idea.