White Plains, NY – Senator Greg Ball (Patterson – R, C, I) announced that a burglary has been reported on Davis Ave. in White Plains, New York that evidently ties into The Journal News gun maps. It is reported that the burglar used The Journal News’ interactive gun map to target a home included on the map. Luckily the gun was locked up and no one was hurt.
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“The Journal News has placed the lives of these folks at risk by creating a virtual shopping list for criminals and nut jobs. If the connection is proven, this is further proof that these maps are not only an invasion of privacy but that they present a clear and present danger to law-abiding, private citizens. Former convicts have already testified to the usefulness of the asinine Journal News ‘gun maps’ yet the reckless editors are evidently willing to roll the dice, gambling with the lives of innocent local homeowners,” said Senator Greg Ball.
Today, Senator Ball will be publicly unveiling three separate pieces of legislation, all with bipartisan support, among them (S2132), to protect the privacy rights of ordinary citizens; including: law enforcement personnel, victims of domestic violence and private citizens. Let it be clear however, that under Ball’s legislation that has garnered bipartisan kudos and support, law enforcement and all related agencies would continue to have full access to permit information. Senate bill (S2132) would protect lawful gun owners, including thousands of retired and active law enforcement and victim of domestic violence survivors, from having their information publicly disclosed.
“The same elitist eggheads who use their editorial page to coddle terrorists and criminals are now treating law abiding citizens like level three sexual predators. These bills are critical to keep folks safe and fundamentally protect their inherent right to privacy. I hope all of these bills will be brought to the floor for an up or down vote, and allowed to fail or pass on their own merits and not as part of a large, overarching gun-control package. This is not about the Second Amendment; these bills are simply about commonsense and personal privacy. Publishing this information on a website, as we have evidently just witnessed in the recent attempted gun burglary, provides criminals with a map of where they can steal firearms from lawful owners for later use in the commission of crimes. This legislation is critical,” said Senator Greg Ball.
In addition to Senator Ball’s legislation, the Vice President of the Affiliated Police Association of Westchester County, Robert Buckley, said in a letter, publishing these maps online is jeopardizing the safety of residents and is irresponsible.
“The Affiliated Police Association of Westchester County Inc. is putting The Journal News on notice that we will hold [them] accountable for any incident where any of our over 25,000 members are involved with an incident where a criminal or ex-con presents themselves at the residence of one of our members as a result of their name being made public by [their] newspaper,” said Buckley.
The Affiliated Police Association of Westchester will be holding a press conference on January 15, 2013 at the Westchester County Courthouse located at 111 Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard, White Plains, N.Y. at 1:00 p.m.
I hope they can prove the connection. I hope the family can sue the paper for malicious intent. Thank G-d no one was hurt and their gun was not stolen. Can you imagine if it had gotten into the hands of criminals?
Is anyone surprised? In NYC the behaymas have long targeted homes where they know the owner has a pistol permit. There have even been cases where families were taken hostage.
unwarranted speculation, unproven, fear mongering. Now where have we heard this type of garbage from politicians before? And how many times will the news folk repeat stuff like this before laughing in their faces?
I’m totally confused.
From one side I hear the argument that only guns can protect people, and from the other side the same people argue that guns make their owners vulnerable.
If the NRA succeeds and everyone will become a gun owner, according to common wisdom in this article, burglaries will become more frequent since everyone is a gun owner.
wait a second, I thought gun ownership is suppose to scare of burglars?
It is interesting, although not noted in this press release from Sen. Ball’s office, that three houses were burglarized on that block, only one of which appeared on the list of pistol permit holders. Does he mean to suggest that the entire block was targeted because one resident held a permit?
Boycott the newspaper, refuse to buy it, hit em where it hurts. Protest in front of their building. They should be sued or shut down. I’m not a NY resident but you could also complain to your Attorney General and ask that they cease doing this and fine them.
This article has it ALL WRONG.
This was targeted because the burglars were able to see on the map that THEY DID NOT have a gun and therefore there was no danger of breaking in.
Wow people are just dumb. Why would they deliberately break into a house if they know the residents have a gun???