It’s no secret that I don’t like guns. But neither am I someone who thinks gun owners are all wingnuts who are stockpiling guns to protect themselves against the government (which is why I frequently lampoon those who are doing this) or to murder their neighbors. If you want to think seriously about ways to put a brake on gun deaths in our country — apart from arming everyone, which is the NRA position — simply publishing a list of (some) (potential) gun owners isn’t going to help.Ari Kohen • Offering an effective bit of commentary regarding the gun registry map put online by a New York-based newspaper. What benefit does posting public information about people who have guns offer? Not a lot, honestly. It doesn’t add much to the gun control debate, it shames and endangers people who don’t necessarily deserve either shaming or endangerment, and it gets away from the actual issue at hand. Yes, it’s public data. No, it doesn’t really shine a light on anything, other than that this is a really effective way of pissing people off.
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