Opinion By Larry Keane
USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- If law-abiding gun owners needed another reason to be dubious of why their firearms ownership should be made public, the San Francisco Chronicle recently provided it. Fortunately, Sutter County Sherriff Brandon Barnes was strong on the side of gun-owners and did right.
Earlier this year on Jan. 10th, the San Francisco Chronicle sent a public records request to Sherriff Barnes demanding to know personal information about concealed carry permit applications and current permit holders. No surprise here, but the newspaper did not say why the info was needed. However, the Chronicle felt that information was crucial to the 22 million monthly readers it reaches as one of the top-five largest newspapers on the West Coast.
Pound Sand
Sheriff Barnes balked, sticking to his guns (and gun owners) as a strong protector of law-abiding American citizens’ Second Amendment rights. The county council advised against withholding the information and said he needed to provide some of the data. Sheriff Barnes did one better. He sent a proactive letter to concealed carry permit applicants and permit holders that some of their information was given to the press, even though he “personally declined” to do so.
This is a poignant reminder why gun owners should be leery of public registries of their gun ownership.
Doxing Gun Owners – Again
This incident smacks of the time when the New York Journal News published an interactive map showing the home locations of concealed carry permit holders following the passage of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s disastrous SAFE Act. That article was taken down after a massive national backlash.
The San Francisco Chronicle has yet to disclose why they need the names and detailed personal information of concealed carry applicants and permit holders. Instead, when confronted, they resorted to deflection and virtue signaling in their response stating they were, “deeply disturbed by how some sheriffs have handled the common request” by a “respected and established news outlet.”
Fortunately for the law-abiding firearms owners in California, Sheriff Barnes said he’ll continue to give proactive notice to permit holders and applicants when these requests are made.
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
The National Shooting Sports Foundation is the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of more than 10,000 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers. www.nssf.org
Progressives and leftists will never, ever give up their broad assault on liberty. Here is one more example. This has been tested in both federal and state courts and has failed each time. Your right to privacy outweighs your neighbors feelings. Simple. But these anti-liberty types keep going from failed theory to failed theory in hopes that something will stick. Rather than focus on reason based solutions they focus on the emotion driven popularly supported, common sense solutions that provide no measurable results but sound good on a bumper sticker. That is not public policy. That is mob rule.
Compliance is for slaves & sheep.
Compliance is for those who would be ruled.
Compliance will, ultimately, end in death.
I WILL NOT kneel!
I WILL NOT comply!
I am an American and veteran. My Rights are not up for arbitration or subjugation.
Believe it or not, the vast majority of California is RED by area. Sutter County, although close to the bay area, is a deep RED county. Sheriffs in these Counties do well by leaning conservative, as seen here. FOIA does not apply to all information, but it may apply to certain aspects of it, such as the number of CC license holders in a county but not their individual names and addresses. I believe the Sheriff here did what he could to stop the communists from gathering ANY information, however, his power is limited in this regard. Sheriffs unfortunately do… Read more »
How is releasing the names of the CCW holders “sticking to his guns”?
Sounds like he caved in to me.
Why does the county council’s advise matter? The Sheriff is an elected position by the people. He calls his own shots. It sounds like getting the council’s advise is something to hide behind. I do think that he is probably bound by law to give the info out.
In California? Who are those permit holders? Common everyday peasants? No, they’re ex LEO and judges and big rich executives and district attorneys. They’re not us, he wasn’t protecting us, he doesnt care about us. He would expose us in a heartbeat. Please, would you wake up!!
It should be noted that even though the sheriff “balked” at turning over the info, he did turn it over.
Guess this is another issue to push at federal level – expand HIPPA laws to cover personally identifiable firearms information. This in addition to reciprocity, HPA and less likely goal of rescinding NFA, GCA and FOPS along with complete federal preemption. If successful, that last could end up a laudable but dangerous victory – lost states would then fight us much harder at federal level.
@USA – Thanks for the entertaining read. Nothing new here, it’s NYC – what do you expect? Lucky he didn’t kill any of his victims. Unlucky arresting officers didn’t fear for their lives encountering an armed & armored mugger. Story could have had a perfect ending