Letter to the Editor: Change the name of your list

August 26, 2004
Toledo City Paper

Why are you reporting who carries guns and who doesn’t? I really hope you thought it through well before you made those law-abiding citizens’ names available on your Web site ["Packing heat," TCP Aug. 12-18].

The names you should be printing are the names of criminals who are illegally toting guns around for wrongful purposes.

My mother is not on the list of permit holders, so everyone now knows she is an easy target for robbery, mugging, rape or worse.

Why not just compile a list of everyone in the county, remove the ones who are listed as CCW holders, and label the list as an "easy target" list?

I don’t appreciate this abuse of the law one bit. I’m also planning on writing to the proper authorities about how disgusted I am about the abuse of media access to the list of names.

Scott Heinlein
Cincinnati

Click on the "Read More..." link below to read a letter praising this identification of "easy targets" from gun ban extremist Toby Hoover.

August 26, 2004
Toledo City Paper

No longer a secret

Thank you for providing the public information on the names of gun carriers ["Packing heat," Aug. 12-18]. City Paper readers and the residents of Lucas and nearby counties are grateful for your responsible community action.

Ohio legislators passed the bill this year giving an extra privilege to gun owners to be able to carry their loaded weapons in public space. That gave each of us an unwanted additional risk. The legislators did not provide a way for us to inform ourselves about those we feel put us at that risk. They allowed the secret carrying of guns and kept the identities of those doing so secret as well.

Any privilege for a few Ohio citizens (in the next few years probably 45,000-50,000 statewide) that affects the entire population (more than 11 million) should be public record. The gun carriers are not living in isolation. We have a right to know who they are so we can make informed choices.

Thanks for providing the service to all of us when the government refused.

Toby Hoover, executive director
Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence
Toledo

Related Stories:
Editorial: List of permit holders shouldn't be a secret

More than 600 Lucas Co. CHL-holders' names published by Toledo freebie rag

Toby Hoover congratulates newspaper under investigation for law-breaking