"A citizen has a right to know if his child has a playdate in the home of a pistol owner..."
First things first. Let me thank you for posting the article. I wonder if Peter Hamm would rather have his kids have a "playdate" with someone who HASN'T been fingerprinted and checked out by the FBI, as well as the local Sheriff's Office and State Police? I know my answer.
This is my first post. Joined a few minutes ago, so please bear with me.
I first heard about this invasion of our privacy while on Free Republic and notified all my friends (gunowners) immediately about what was about to break. The following morning we went into action and contacted the Sheriff, gunshops, shooting buddies etc and much to my regret, The Daily Star in Oneonta, NY. They knew nothing of the story and promised to look into it.
I was then contacted via email by the alleged reporter Denise Richardson asking me for an interview. I said yes, but she must promise me NOT to print the website address. She said she couldn't do that and she would print whatever she wanted to. Okay, end of interview I said. She is clearly a liberal anti-gun yuppie-age clueless individual. I asked her if she thought it would be responsible journalism to print or give access to the names and home addresses of police officers, judges, Physicians or even reporters? She said she didn't have a problem with that. I asked her if she had heard about how 500 irate SEIU members invaded the property of a guy just because he worked for Bank of America. She had no clue what I was talking about. Some "news" person, huh? I pointed out that giving the address to the site in question would put gunowners families and children at danger. No response. I made reference to other newspapers that have done the same thing in their states and how it backfired on them because within a few days their home addresses were posted on the internet. She then accused me of invading her privacy if I did such a thing. I then sent her and her editor the following email:
_____________
Ms. Richardson,
Perhaps you did not see my point during our conversation. By printing the website address in question, you would only be providing crooks and kooks with a list of people that own firearms, as well as a virtual roadmap to the home of every Police Officer, Lawyer, Judge, Physician and those protected from irate persons under restraining orders.
I simply cannot express my thoughts any simpler. I question why you can't see the potential dangers of printing the website address unless it is controversy and endangering the lives and property of innocent citizens that you seek.
The owner of the site has gone to great lengths to keep himself/herself anonymous. If you do decide to publish the address in your story, then I believe that the Daily Star and the article's author will be quickly labeled as aligning themselves with and enabling the local criminal element, all for a story that is no longer 'Breaking News'.
There is a line, a point in every responsible journalist's career that they are faced with the tough question "am I doing the right thing". Do the right thing, Denise. Put your own beliefs aside and do the right thing.
I am much more well-versed and educated in the matters of gun control and gun rights than you and have many good points to make that would elevate the credibility of your article to more than just another 'scoop'. I offered these under the pretext that you would avoid publishing the website address and you denied my request. Our conversation continued to become more heated as time passed, again due to your reluctance to grant not only myself, but the entire community of gun-owners our due anonymity.
As I indicated to you in our conversation multiple times, other papers that chose to recklessly print names or give access to names of local gun-owners have had their own addresses published via internet. Those newspapers and employees cried foul and that that was a violation of their own privacy, yet they provided like information on gun owners. Your privacy is not any more valuable than ours and the arrogance of anyone thinking so is absurd by all standards of common sense and decency.
I strongly advise you to avoid printing one word of our conversation, especially my name, xxxx xxxxx. If you wish to conduct an interview in a civil manner and with an open mind to obvious and documented facts, then we can talk. If not, then again, DO NOT MENTION MY NAME, QUOTE ME OR MAKE REFERENCE TO ME IN ANY FORM!
signed....
(timbercutter)
The article seems to written out of spite because I questioned her intelligence about gun issues and her lack of journalistic ethics.
I will begin today to compile a list of home addresses for every employee at the Daily Star. It is public information, afterall. It's amazing how easy this task is using the resources of the internet. If they wish to sue me, then so be it. The Daily Star has opened a can of worms and it will be, as I indicated in my letter to her, detrimental to the reputation of their paper. No violence is implied or suggested by my statement. Perhaps 500 peaceful local gunowners with signs in front of her house and/or the Daily Star offices might wake her and her handlers up?
Just a thought.....
