Are today's criminals smarter than journalists?
By Chad D. Baus
Before the media access loophole was inserted into Ohio's Concealed Handgun License law by Governor Taft as an 11th hour poison pill, legislators in Ohio were warned that newspapers would abuse the law and publish entire lists of concealed handgun license-holders. They were also warned that such lists could then be exploited by criminals wishing to steal firearms, and that instances of criminals targeting particular locations they know to contain specific valuables (such as firearms), and staking out or casing residences to make sure no one is home, are common and well documented. But few listened...
The Akron Beacon Journal called this warning a "flimsy presumption", and Gannett News Columbus Bureau Chief Jim Siegel said warnings about the dangers of publishing the list of CHL-holders "elevate these criminals to a level of sophistication they very likely do not possess..." Even then-Attorney General Jim Petro called such a scenario "a stretch".
Since those comments were made in 2004, we have pointed to multiple examples (see links at the conclusion of this story) proving that criminals DO have this level of sophistication, the anti-gun media are still arguing the exact opposite as they seek to avoid sound reasons for which lists of CHL-holders should not be published en masse.
Last month, when the Roanoke (Virginia) Times decided to celebrate the media-fabricated Sunshine Week by publishing the entire list of the state's concealed weapons license holders, the response was overwhelming. The Times, unlike their counterparts at the Cleveland Plain Dealer in Ohio when it faced similar outcry, promptly responded by pulling the list. But even as they did so, the paper sought to discredit the arguments of their readers.
From the Roanoke Times story:
- It was a common theme that ran through the opposition: Publicizing the names and addresses of 135,000 concealed-gun carriers was more than just a privacy issue; it also enabled criminals to track down their victims and find the best homes to burglarize for guns.
Yet no one interviewed for this story -- including a Second Amendment scholar, a state police spokeswoman, the National Rifle Association and three other gun rights groups -- could point to a single incident in which that actually ever happened.
The odds seem unlikely to Randell Beck, executive editor of The Argus Leader in South Dakota, which maintains a database of that state's concealed handgun permit holders on its Web site.
"I find it very difficult to argue that [publication] in any way may put you on somebody's burglary list," Beck said. "In fact the opposite argument applies: If I'm a burglar looking for a place to steal stuff, and if I know Joe Blow has a handgun, I would be less likely to burglarize his house, knowing that he might shoot me."
Andria Harper, director of the First Amendment Foundation, made the same argument when her group fought unsuccessfully against the move to close gun records in Florida.
"That's the definition of a dumb criminal," Harper said. "To stalk someone they know has a concealed weapon."
Is it just me, or is it the definition of a dumb journalist to expect that criminal busted for, oh, say, stealing 20 guns from a home in broad daylight, is going to admit how he knew where to find the loot?
Despite the fact that there is already substantial evidence that when criminals want something specific, they are enterprising enough to figure out how to get it, these oh-so-intelligent media elites have not yet seen enough proof that criminals are smart enough to use a list of concealed handgun licenseholders as a shopping list for gun theft. So allow me to offer up one more piece of evidence.
- 2 machine guns, ammo stolen from collector
Toledo Blade
March 28, 2007
Two machine guns, one with a silencer and both with ammunition, were stolen yesterday from a Springfield Township apartment, a Lucas County sheriff’s detective said.
Someone broke into a unit at Country Trace Apartments, 1935 Country Trace Pl., and stole the 9mm and M60 guns between 12:30 and 2 a.m., Detective Mark Woodruff said.
The silencer was on the 9mm gun. The guns, both black, and related items are worth several thousand dollars, the investigator said.
The 52-year-old resident came home to find the back door kicked in, a gun safe in a spare bedroom pried open, and the guns missing. The weapons are legal and were for collecting and investment purposes according to a federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives stamp, the detective said.
Consider again the words of Randell Beck, executive editor of The Argus Leader in South Dakota:
- "If I know Joe Blow has a handgun, I would be less likely to burglarize his house, knowing that he might shoot me."
Or, Randall, you might simply do what these Toledo criminals did - watch and wait until you know no one is home. Consider how much easier your friends in the media have made it for thieves who seek to steal firearms to sell on the black market or to use in violent crimes by publishing massive lists of gun owners. The hard part - identifying the target location - has been done for the gun thieves. Now all they have to do is the physical surveillance.
The recent passage of HB9 in Ohio marked the first attempt by the General Assembly to clarify its intent in giving journalists access to the records. Journalists may "view", but may not copy the list of Ohio CHL-holders - information which the General Assembly has declared to be private information.
When HB9 was passed into law - the burden was placed squarely on the Ohio media to honor the will of the General Assembly, and to prove they want the information only for the purposes they originally claimed (verifying training and background checks were being properly conducted), and not as a means of gaining access to foster a wholesale publishing of the list.
Related Stories:
Rapist uses Beacon Journal to lure victim
Criminals use Plain Dealer to pre-plan armed robbery
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